THE    HISTORY    OF    RELIGION 

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BABEL  AND  BIBLE.  A  Lecture  Delivered  Before  the  German  Emperor.  Pro- 
fusely Illustrated  from  the  Best  Assyriological  Sources.  By  Dr.  Frikdrich 
Delitzsch,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Berlin.  Translated  by  Thomas  J. 
McCoRMACK.     Reprinted  in  Book  Form.     50  Cents  net  (2s.  6d.). 

THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MITHRA.  History  of  Their  Origin.  Their  Dissemina- 
tion  and  Influence  in  the  Roman  Empire,  Their  Doctrines  and  Liturgy,  Their 
Struggle  with  Christianity,  etc.  Illustrated.  By  Franz  Cumont,  Professor 
in  the  University  of  Ghent.  Belgium.  Translated  by  Thomas  J.  McCormack. 
Now  Appearing  in  Serial  Form  in  The  Of  en  Court,  Beginning  with  February, 
1902.    Price  per  Number,  10  Cents  (6d.).    Soon  to  be  published  in  book-form. 

THE  FIRST  PHILOSOPHER.  Interpretation  and  Translation  of  a  Fragment 
of  Egyptian  Hieroglyphic  Writing  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  Before  Christ, 
Expounding  the  System  of  Thought  of  a  Meraphite  Priest  that  Foreshadows 
the  Philosophy  of  Greece.  By  James  H.  Breasted,  Professor  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago.      The  Montst,  April,  1902.     Price,  50  Cents  (2s.  6d.). 

EGYPTIAN  RELIGIOUS  CONCEPTIONS.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  A  Series 
of  Articles  to  be  Published  in  The  Open  Court, 

BABYLONIAN  AND  HEBREW  VIEWS  OF  MANS  FATE  AFTER  DEATH. 
By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.      The  Of  en  Court,  Vol.  XV.,  No.  6.     10  cents  (6d.). 

THE  FAIRY-TALE  ELEMENT  IN  THE  BIBLE.  Babylonian  Cosmogony. 
The  Cuneiform  Tablets  of  the  Marduk  Myth.  Yahveh's  Fight  With  the 
Dragon.  The  Two  Hebrew  Creation  Stories.  Deluge  Legends.  Worship  of 
the  Queen  of  Heaven.  Song  of  the  Well.  Etc,  Etc.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus. 
Tlu  Monist  for  April  and  July,  1901.  Price,  50  Cents  (2s.  6d.)  Each.  These 
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Assyria),  by  Prof.  James  A.  Craig  ;  and  on  the  Authenticity  of  the  Too  Teh 
King,  by  Dr.  Paul  Carus. 

A  STUDY  OF  JOB  AND  THE  JEWISH  THEORY  OF  SUFFERING.  By 
Prof.  James  A.  Craig,  University  of  Michigan.  The  Monist,  Vol.  IX.,  No.  4. 
50  cents  (2s.  6d.). 

THE  POLYCHROME  BIBLE.  By  Prof.  Carl  Heinrich  Cornill,  University 
of  Breslau.      The  Monist,  Vol.  X.,  Nos.  i  and  3.     50  cents  each  (2s.  6d.). 

THE  TWO  ACCOUNTS  OF  HAGAR.  By  Prof.  Hermann  Gunkel,  Univer- 
sity of  Berlin.      The  Monist,  Vol.  X.,  No.  3.     50  cents  (2s.  6d.). 

THE  CROSS  AND  ITS  SIGNIFICANCE.  Also  Essays  on:  (i)  The  Cross  in 
Central  America ;  (2)  The  Cross  Among  the  North  American  Indians ;  (3) 
Plato  and  the  Cross ;  (4)  The  Cross  of  Golgotha ;  (5)  Staurolatry,  or  The  Hi»^ 
tory  of  Cross  Worship ;  and  (6)  The  Crucifix.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  Tlu 
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LONDON  :  Kbgan  Paul,  Trench,  TrObner  &  Co.,  Ltd. 


The 

Creation-Story  of  Genesis  L 


Stimerian  Theogony  and  Cos77iogony 

By 

DR,  HUGO  RADAV 


CHICAGO 
THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

LONDON 
Ktgan  Paul,  Trench,  TrUbner  *•  {>„  U^l. 


*OAN  STAgc 


TKT  tiBRARV  OF 
CONGRESS, 

AUG.  15    1902 

CUASS  CL  XXa  Ma 


X  z 


Copyright  by 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 

1902. 


firK 


PREFACE. 


npHE  Right  Rev.  D.  S.  Tattle,  Bishop  of  Missouri,  in  delivering  a  sermon  be- 
•*•  fore  a  body  of  theological  students  on  "How  to  make  the  people  contribute 
liberally  towards  the  support  of  the  Church,"  remarked.:  "You  must  milk  the 
cows!  The  more  and  the  oftener  you  milk  them,  the  more  milk  they  will  give." 
Although  somewhat  vulgar,  yet  the  simile  fits  the  case  exactly.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  study  of  the  Bible.  The  more  we  study  it,  the  more  we  draw  from  it,  the 
more  it  will  yield :  milk  of  life, — both  for  the  soul  and  the  brain !  The  same  idea 
was  also  expressed  by  Dr.  Martin  Luther  who  compared  the  Bible  to  a  beautiful 
and  fruitful  tree.  The  more  and  the  oftener  we  pluck  its  fruit,  the  more  it  will 
give  us.  , 

But  not  everybody  knows  "  how  to  milk,"  nor  does  everybody  know  "how  to 
pluck  the  fruits."  If  done  carelessly  and  thoughtlessly,  the  "milking"  as  well  as 
the  "plucking  of  the  fruit"  may  become  dangerous, — we  may  fall  from  the  tree ! 
If  there  are  some  who  thus  fell  from  the  tree  while  trying  to  pluck  its  fruit,  who 
will  dare  to  say  that  it  was  the  tree's  fault  that  "the  plucker"  fell  down?  Was  it 
not,  on  the  contrary,  the  plucker's  own  carelessness,  his  own  fault  ? 

Exactly  so  it  is  with  the  '•  Higher  Criticism.'^  Higher  criticism,  if  thought- 
lessly and  carelessly  applied  to  the  Bible,  will  and  must  be  hurtful:  not  for  the 
Bible,  however,— for  it  will  remain  undaunted, — but  for  him  who  aspires  to  be 
a  "  higher  critic."  And  how  many  there  are  who  want  to  be  what  they  cannot  be; 
higher  critics!  A  true  higher  critic's  aim  is  not  to  destroy  the  Bible,  but  to 
UNDERSTAND  it, — Understand  it  historically.  Thus  he  will  apply  the  higher  criti- 
ical  methods  as  given  by  ''history.**  In  history  the  divine  unll  is  carried  out. 
The  Bible  when  thus  "read  in  the  light  of  history"  will  yield  fruits  of  which  no- 
body ever  dreamed, — fruits  ripened  in  ages  past  and  saved  for  our  present  times  to 
gather. 

tndeed,  the  Bible  is  a  wonderful  tree  with  manifold  fruits :  tiny  shoots  have 
been  engrafted  on  it  from  time  to  time  by  dififerent  gardeners, — shoots  taken  from 
other  trees  raised  on  foreign  soil.  These  gardeners  belonged  to  a  people  that  was 
not  surrounded  by  a  "Chinese  Wall,"  nor  were  they  blind,  deaf,  or  dnmb.  They 
had  eyes  and  saw,  ears  and  beard,  mouths  and  spoke.     And  what  they  saw  and 


VI  PREFACE. 

beard  and  spoke  they  deposited  in  the  Bible.  Thus  it  becomes  at  once  the  task  of 
the  "  higher  critic"  to  trace  these  little  shoots  to  their  original  soil  and  to  inquire 
from  whence  they  were  taken  and  by  whom  and  at  what  time  they  were  engrafted. 
And  if  we  find  that  this  or  that  little  shoot  was  taken  from  North  or  Sonth  Israel- 
itic  soil,  from  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  or  Persian  soil, — does  the  tree  lose  thereby 
its  wonderful  beauty  ?  Shall  we  not,  on  the  contrary,  admire  it  all  the  more  ?  And 
to  have  traced  with  the  help  of  "little  clay  tablets"  one  of  these  tiny  shoots  to  its 
native  soil  is  the  joy  of  the  author. 

The  greater  part  of  the  following  pages  apjjeared  in  The  Monist  for  July,  1902 
(Vol.  XII.,  pp.  568-625).  It  was  found  necessary  in  order  to  explain  certain  "at- 
tributes "  of  the  gods  to  touch  shortly  upon  the  Sumerian  cosmology.  Also  the 
Old  Arabian  pantheon  has  been  taken  in  by  way  of  "corroboration."  Jensen's 
Kosmolog^ie  and  Jastrow's  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  were  not  accessible 
to  the  author,  and  therefore  could  not  be  quoted. 

It  only  remains  for  the  author  to  thank  most  cordially  Dr.  Paul  Cams  and  Mr. 
T.  J.  McCormack,  editors  of  The  Open  Court  and  The  Monist,  not  only  for  their 
many  valuable  suggestions  and  corrections  when  preparing  the  MS.  for  the  press, 
but  also  for  the  promptness  with  which  it  has  been  printed. 

Hugo  Radau. 
Waterloo,  III.,  June,  1902. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

A  SUMERIAN  THEOGONY  AND  COSMOGONY. 

MYTHS  IN  THE  BIBLE~is  a  subject  which  has  recently  re- 
ceived the  greatest  attention  from  Biblical  scholars.  Pro- 
fessors GunkeP  and  Zimmern*  have  investigated  the  subject  in  its 
various  aspects,  and  Dr.  Paul  Cams'  has  discussed  it  so  thoroughly 
that  hardly  anything  is  left  which  has  not  been  adverted  to  by  them. 
The  following  investigation  is  based  upon  a  direct  study  of  the  an- 
cient Babylonian  inscriptions,  though  the  results  reached  b^  my 
predecessors  and  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  their  method  of  in- 
vestigation is  presupposed  here.  For  the  sake  of  completeness, 
however,  I  may  be  permitted  to  recapitulate  in  a  few  words  the 
chief  data  brought  out  by  their  investigations,  confining  myself 
here  to  the  myth  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 

The  original  account  of  Gen.  i.  must  have  contained  the  so- 
called  Jahveh-Tehom  myth  found  in  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. This  myth  represents  Jahveh  as  fighting  with  a  dragon, 
called  either  Rahab  or  Leviathan  or  serpent.  Jahveh  overcomes 
this  dragon,  divides  it  and  forms  out  of  the  two  halves  **the  waters 
that  are  above  the  firmament"  and  **the  waters  that  are  below  the 
firmament."     The  Biblical   dragon   has  been  identified  with  the 

'  Schdffung  und  Chaos  in  Urzeit  und  Endzeit.  G&ttingen,  1895.  Also  his 
new  Commentary  on  Genesis  (the  Introduction  has  been  published  by  the  Open 
Court  Publis]yng  Co.,  Chicago). 

'"Biblische  und  Babylonische  Urgeschichte "  in  Dtr  alte  Orient,  Vol  II., 
Heft  3.     Leipzig,  190X. 

*  "The  FairyTale  Element  in  the  Bible,"  in  The  Monist  for  April  and  July, 
Z901. 


2  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

Babylonian  Tiamat,  a  monster  which  was  overcome  by  the  god 
Marduk,  the  god  of  light,  and  which  was  likewise  divided  in  twain. 
Further  the  fight  of  Marduk  with  Tiamat  was  recognised  as  the 
original  of  the  fight  of  Jahveh  with  Tehom  :  a  fight  of  the  light 
against  the  darkness.  The  darkness  having  been  overcome  by  the 
light,  the  creation  became  possible.  The  following  striking  sim- 
ilarities were  found  to  exist  between  the  Biblical  and  Babylonian 
myths^: 

According  to  both  traditions  there  was  in  the  beginning  noth- 
ing but  the  chaos  under  the  form  of  the  primeval  ocean — it  was 
eternal,  not  having  been  created.  This  ocean,  when  personified 
was  thought  to  be  a  terrible  monster.  The  Babylonian  name  of 
that  monster  was  Tiamat,  the  Biblical  Tehom  or  Leviathan-Rahab.* 
That  in  Gen.  i.  this  Tehom  was  considered  a  mythical  being  is  still 
evident  from  the  fact  that  the  word  is  treated  as  a  ** proper  name*' 
— it  is  simply  called  Tehom  and  not  ha-Tehom.  In  both  myths 
this  Tehom  is  represented  as  a  dragon  or  serpent,  either  with  one 
or  several  heads,  presumably  seven  as  in  Revelation,  chapters  xii. 
and  xiii. 

Besides  the  chief  monster  there  appear  in  both  traditions  others: 
its  helpers.  In  the  Babylonian  creation-story  there  are  opposed  to 
these  monsters  the  ** great  gods"  among  whom  Marduk  takes  the 
first  and  foremost  place-  Also  in  the  Biblical  account  there  seem 
to  have  been,  besides  Jahveh,  other  divine  beings,  as  is  still  evident 
from  Gen.  i.  26:  **Let  us  make  man."  In  the  Babylonian  account 
it  is  Marduk  who  takes  up  the  fight  with  Tiamat;  in  the  Biblical 
account  the  same  role  is  played  by  Jahveh.  Both  are  armed  with 
a  sword.  Marduk  kills  with  his  sword  Tiamat,  Jahveh  Rahab- 
Leviathan-Tehom.  The  *' helpers"  of  Tiamat  are  treated  more 
kindly  by  Marduk,  precisely  as  is  done  with  the  helpers  of  Rahab 
by  Jahveh.  According  to  both  myths  the  monster  is  divided — ac- 
cording to  the  Babylonian  account :  into  the  upper  waters  and  into 
the  lower  waters.     The  upper  waters  are  kept  back  by  a  kind  of 

*  See  Zimmem,  I.e.,  p.  15.     Gunkel,  Commentary,  p.  85  f.     Carus,  The  Mo- 
ntst,  April,  190X,  p.  428. 

'V  Ixxxix.  9  ff.     V  Ixxiv.  13  ff.     Is.  li.  9  ff.     Job  xxvi.  12  ff.;  \x.  13  ff. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I..  3 

barrier  and  by  watchmen,  who  are  *'not  to  let  out  the  waters." 
According  to  the  Biblical  account  Jahveh  divides  the  Tehom,  the 
primeval  ocean,  also  into  two  parts,  by  putting  a  firmament  be- 
tween them.  Thus  the  Tehom  came  to  be  a  heavenly  and  a  ter- 
restrial ocean,  or  as  it  is  said  in  the  Bible,  **  waters  which  were 
above  the  firmament"  and  '* waters  which  were  below  the  firm- 
ament." Even  the  watchmen  who  are  to  guard  the  waters  of  heaven 
are  still  preserved  in  Job  vii.  12  :  " 

"Am  I  a  sea  or  sea-monster  that  thou  settest  a  watch  over  me  ?  " 

By  thus  dividing  the  primeval  ocean  there  is  created  according 
to  both  myths  the  visible  heaven.  In  the  Bible  as  well  as  in  the 
Babylonian  account  this  fight  with  the  dragon  is  closely  connected 
with  the  creation  of  the  world,  in  such  wise  that  the  former  pre- 
cedes the  latter.  In  both  accounts  we  have  the  following  sequence: 
Tehom — Fight — Division — Heaven  ! 

The  above  is  a  r^sumi  of  what  scholars  have  arrived  at  in  their 
investigations,  and  I  think  their  conclusions  may  be  accepted  as 
true.  But,  far  as  they  have  gone,  they  have  by  no  means  as  yet 
exhausted  the  subject.  There  are  still  left  certain  difficulties  in 
the  Biblical  as  well  as  in  the  Bab\'lonian  account  which  are  not  yet 
satisfactorily  explained.  And  with  these  unsolved  problems  we 
are  concerned  here. 

Before  we  consider  these  problems  it  would  seem  necessary  to 
say  a  few  words  about  the  structure  of  Gen.  i. 

The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  ascribed  by  all  scholars  to  the 
Priestly  school  (commonly  abbreviated  P.) — and  is  hence  late. 
The  word  cv.bK  (Elohim)  is  used  throughout  for  *'God"  and  the 
account  is  built  up  according  to  a  certain  formula.  This  formula 
runs: 

"And  Elohim  said :  let  there  be  .  .  .  and  there  was.  .  .  .  And  Elobim  saw  .  .  . 
that*  it  was  good.     And  there  was  evening  and  there  was  morning  the  .  .  .day." 

According  to  this  skeleton  the  creation  of  the  world  is  described 
as  having  taken  place  within  a  space  of  seven  days.  This  system 
of  seven  days  is  not  original,  it  is  not  found  in  the  Babylonian  ac- 
count.    It  was  inserted  by  P.     This  follows  from  the  fact  that  on 


4  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

the  third  and  sixth  day  two  tasks  were  done,  and  that  on  the  sev- 
enth day,  which  was  intended  to  be  a  day  of  rest,  Elohim  had  to 
finish  the  work  of  the  sixth  day:  rj'rr  "itK  TCK7?2 '^r'^Dtn  21*3  CVOK  hv'^ 
— and  if  he  Jinished  itf  he  had  to  work  on  it,  it  was  not  at  an  end, 
not  yet  done  on  the  sixth  day !  But,  as  we  shall  shortly  see,  there 
is  still  another  reason  why  the  system  of  seven  daj^s  cannot  have 
belonged  originally  to  the  account  of  the  creation. 

Furthermore,  I  should  like  to  point  out  here  the  difficulty 
which  we  encounter  when  trying  to  translate  the  word  yixn.  It  is 
used  in  three  different  senses  in  the  first  ten  verses.  In  the  ex- 
pression, y-Kn  rW'i  c*:;;rn  nx,  it  is  used  to  express  our  idea  of  ''cos- 
mos," for  ** heaven  and  earth"  is  simply  the  Hebrew  term  for 
our  word  "cosmos."  In  the  expression,  ^w'^^1  yn^ri*,  of  v.  2,  ynx 
stands  for  the  chaotic  mass ;  it  is  the  cosmos  as  it  existed  before 
the  first  day.  And  v.  10  yix  is  explained  by  Txt^,  "the  dry  ground " ; 
here  therefore  it  is  the  same  as  that  which  we  should  understand  by 
"earth."  Bearing  this  in  mind,  w^e  ought  to  translate  verses  i — 3 
as  follows : 

**In  the  beginning  of  the  Elohim's  creating-  heaven  and  earth  (i.  e.,  the  cos- 
mos)— the  chaotic  mass  existed,'  namely,*  as  a  tohu  vabohn,  and  darkness  was 
npon  Tehom  and  the  spirit  of  Elohim  nsm?2  upon  the  waters — then  Elohim  said :  ** 
etc. 

With  this  translation,  of  course,  falls  also  the  theor>^  of  a  crea- 
iio  ex  nihilo.  Indeed,  a  creation  out  of  nothing  is  not  implied  in 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  Not  a  single  word  indicates  such  a 
theory — not  even  the  word  xt3 — for  we  have  instead  of  XTD  in  verses 
25,  26,  the  verb  nrr-  It  was  the  chaotic  mass  coeternal  with  the 
Creator  out  of  which  everj'^thing  was  created,  made,  developed, 
evolutionised.  After  the  primeval  ocean  has  been  divided  into  the 
waters  above  and  below  the  firmament,  the  earth  or  dry  land  is 
made  to  "appear  out  of  the  waters  under  the  firmament":  nXTCQ 

*  Gen.  ii.  2. 

'  Or.  "In  the  beginning  when  Elohim  was  about  to  create." 

»^n^"^  =  "existed,'  not  ^"n  or  •*  became." 

*Sc.  at  that  time,  i.  e.,  "in  the  beginning." 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  5 

^tT7\ !     Even  the  birds  are  developed  or  take  their  origin  from  out 
of  this  terrestrial  ocean  : 

.     r)*.ri  ri^n  tt:  yii^  c^rn  iirii&^ 

"Let  the  waters  swarm  with  swarms  of  living  creatures  and  with  birds." * 

We  see  then,  that  one  thing  takes  its  origin  out  of  the  other, 
one  is  the  parent  of  the  other ;  there  is,  so  to  speak,  a  continual 
giving  birth  of  one  thing  to  another, — a  genealogy ^ 

Having  thus  cleared  our  way,  we  must  now  consider  the  differ- 
ences between  the  Biblical  and  the  Babylonian  account  of  the  crea- 
tion,— differences  that  are  certainly  strange  and  marked.  If  it  be 
true  that  Gen.  I  originally  made  use  of  the  fight  of  Jahveh  with 
Tehom,  we  must  be  able  to  account  not  only  for  its  omission,  but 
also  for  its  differences  from  the  Babylonian  Marduk-Tiamat  myth. 
And  just  these  differences  are,  for  our  consideration,  of  the  highest 
importance ! 

According  to  the  Babylonian  account,  the  creator  Marduk  was 
himself  borne  by  Tiamat, — he  therefore  was  not  coeternal  with  Tia- 
mat,  he  was,  so  to  speak,  her  child  !  The  Creator  of  Gen.  i,  on 
the  other  hand,  exists  from  all  eternity  like  Tohom  herself !  The 
first  act  of  the  Babylonian  creator  is  the  ** division  of  the  Tiamat/* 
i.  e.,  the  creation  of  *'the  upper  waters"  and  '*the  lower  waters"! 
The  first  act  of  Elohim  of  Gen.  i  is  the  creation  of  the  n*i<  or  light. 

Now,  what   is   the  significance  of  this  Y,n  in   Gen.  i?     It  is 

*  Gen.  i.  20. 

'The  writer  of  Psalm  civ.  24  ff.  was,  no  doubt,  later  than  P.,  since  for  him 
the  eternity  of  Tehom-Leviathan  seemed  to  have  been  impossible.     Jahveh  alone 
could  be  eternal, — hence  Leviathan  had  to  become  a  creature,  for  we  read  (R.  V.): 
"  O  Lord,  how  manifold  are  thy  works! 
In  wisdom,  thou  hast  made  them  all : 
The  earth  is  full  of  thy  creatures. 
Yonder  is  the  sea,  great  and  wide, 
Wherein  are  things  creeping  innumerable. 
Both  small  and  great  beasts. 
There  go  the  ships. 

There  is  Leviathan,  whom  thou  hast  formed  ♦ 

to  take  his  pastime  therein  I " 
The  original  significance  of  Leviathan  is  lost  here, — he  has  become  a  mer« 
creature  of  Jahveh!     Hence  also  the  succession:  creation  of  the  earth  with  its 
creatures  and  the  sea  with  its  creatures,  among  them  Leviatbin  I 


6  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

neither  the  sun  nor  the  moon  nor  any  of  the  stars, — for  they  were 
all  created  later :  on  the  fourth  day  !  And  yet  it  is  said  in  v.  4  that 
Elohim  by  thus  creating  the  ** light"  divided  the  **light  from  the 
darkness";  the  former  he  called  ** day,"  the  latter  he  called  ** night.'* 
Now  this  is  in  direct  contradiction  to  v.  14  and  v.  18,  where  we  are 
expressly  told  that  Elohim  created  the  "two  great  luminaries,** 
i.  e.,  the  sun  arid  the  moon,  "to  rule  over  the  day  and  over  the 
night  and  to  divide  the  light  from  the  darkness'^  \  According  to  our 
daily  experience  and  observation,  it  is  the  sun  which  conditions 
**the  light  and  the  darkness"  or  *'the  day  and  the  night."  If  this 
be  true,  then  it  follows  that  the  statement  in  v.  4  about  the  "light" 
of  the  first  day  is  wrong.  And  so  it  is  !  We  saw  above  that  the 
system  of  seven  days  does  not  originally  belong  to  the  creation 
story.  The  writer  of  Gen.  i,  however,  in  order  to  fabricate  his 
nights  and  days  or  simply  "days"  before  the  sun  was  created,  had 
to  add  some  such  expressions  as  those  found  in  v.  4 :  "to  divide  the 
light  from  the  darkness."  In  doing  this,  he  manufactured  the  first 
three  days,^M<f  days^  namely,  which  preceded  the  creation  of  the 
sun  on  the  fourth  day.  And  because  it  was  added,  it  follows  that 
v.  4  and  all  of  v.  5  does  not  belong  to  this  account.  But  this  con- 
sideration does  not  yet  explain  the  '*//*^///"  itself,  created  by  God 
on  the  first  day. 

In  vain  have  I  looked  in  the  various  commentaries  for  an  ex- 
planation,— the  explanations  given,  if  they  may  be  called  such,  do 
not  explain  !  Here  again  the  Babylonian  account  helps  us.  Accord- 
ing to  that  account  Tiamat  brings  forth  "the  great  gods,"  among 
whom  the  god  0/  light f  Marduk,  was  the  chief  one,  and  this  latter 
overcomes  Tiamat  and  thus  creates  the  heavens.  In  Gen.  i  the 
monotheistic  idea  predominates;  the  conception  of  divinity  that 
the  writer  had,  did  not  suffer  the  Greater  himself  to  be  created, — 
hence  what  did  the  writer  do  ?  Well,  "the  great  gods"  were  elimi- 
nated, the  creator  Marduk  was  called  Elohim  (or  Jahveh)  and  was 
made  coeternal  with  Tiamat  and  placed  with  her  at  the  beginning, 
— but  only  the  name,  the  nomen  proprium  of  the  creator  was  removed, 
his  attribute  was  kept:  the  attribute  **  light**  \  And  it  was  kept 
because  the  writer  needed  it  to  make  out  his  days  I     Hence  the 


THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  7 

**lighi*^  of  Gen.  i,  4,  because  it  is  neither  the  sun  nor  the  moon 
nor  any  of  the  stars,  can  be  only  the  attribute  of  Marduky  as  the 
god  of  h"ght  and  the  foremost  of  all  gods.  The  **ltg?itf**  then,  must 
be  another,  and  the  most  important,  m3^thological  element  taken 
from  the  Bab3'lonian  account  by  the  writer  of  Gen.  i.  Mardnk, 
the  **god  of  light,"  is  the  ^* conditio  sine  qua  non*^  without  which  the 
creation  would  have  been  impossible, — the  writer  thought.  The 
name  Marduk  had  to  be  given  up,  but  his  attribute  could  be  kept 
and  was  kept  and  made  the  first  work  of  Elohim. 

From  these  considerations  we  get  the  following  sequence: 

{a)  Babylonian: 

Tiamat — **the  great  gods,"  and  Marduk,  the  god  of  light 
— fight — division — heaven. 

{b)  Biblical : 

Tehom — light — ^^fight — division — heaven. 

In  the  Babylonian  account  the  primeval  ocean  is  a  monster  of 
double  sex:  a  masculine  and  a  feminine  in  one  person,  a  kind  of 
androgyn,  for  we  read : 

"E-nu-ma  e-lish  la  na-bu-u  sba-raa-mu 
sbap-lish  ma-tum  sbu-ma  la  zak-rat 
^  apsfl-ma  r^h-tn-u  za-ru-shu-un 

mu-um-mu  ti-amat  mu-al-li-da-at  gim-ri-shu-nn 
me-shu-nu  ish-ti-nish  i-chi-qu-u-ma." 

That  is : 

'  •  When  above  |  the  beavens  were  not  yet  named 
Below  tbe  eartb  j  no  name  as  yet  bore 
Wben  tbe  ocean,  tbe  primeval  |  tbeir  begetter 
Tidmat,  tbe  deep,  |  tbe  mother  of  tbem  all 
Tbeir  waters  in  one  |  bad  joined  together 
Tben  tbe  great  gods  were  created." 

According  to  this  the  primeval  waters  consisted  of  the  aps^t 
the  begetiery  or  zaru,^  and  the  Tidmat^  the  mother  or  muallidat.  As 
a  r-esult  of  the  "joining  their  waters  in  one,"  i.  e.,  of  cohabitation, 
the  gods  were  created.  The  primeval  ocean,  then,  was  considered 
to  be  the  first  parent  who  brought  forth  the  gods.     What  does  the 

*  From  the  root  m  "  geed  "  I 


8  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

Bible  say  to  this?  The  verse  which  speaks  about  the  primeval 
waters  consists  of  three  clauses — the  first  clause  gives  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  primeval  waters  or  chaotic  mass  and  the  other  two 
clauses  stand  in  the  so-called  parallelismus  membrorum.     It  reads 

z^'nn  ^:s'rr  nsm?:  s*nbK  ni-ii 

That  is,  "the  chaotic  mass  (or  primeval  waters,  ocean  see  above  !) 
existed  as  a  tohu-vabohu ;  it  was  *a  darkness'  upon  the  Tchom  as 
well  as  a  *  spirit  of  god'  that  rsr.*?:  upon  the  tcaters.^' 

If  the  Hebrew  Tehom  is  equal  to  the  Babylonian  Tiamat,  then 
"the  waters"  must  be  the  "apsu."  But  if  "the  waters"  are  the 
"apsu,"  then  "the  spirit  of  God"  must  be  it  too!  This  follows 
from  the  parallelism.  Hence  "the  spirit  of  God'*  of  Gen.  i.  plays 
exactly  the  same  role  as  the  apsu  of  the  Babylonians,  i.  e.,  he 
rcn*?:  the  Tehom.  The  word  r.^rr,?:  is  declared  by  the  newest  com- 
mentators to  mean  "to  brood  over'* — but  I  do  not  think  that  that 
translation  exhausts  its  full  meaning ;  r^r,";?:  means  and  stands  for 
the  same  "idea"  expressed  by  the  Greek  i-rijcrKevaJ^uvt  i.  e.,  "to  over- 
shadow.** Thus  we  get  here  a  striking  parallel  to  "the  Holy  Ghost 
overshadowing  Mar}'.*'  nC"")?:,  then,  expresses  the  same  thing  as 
does  the  Babylonian  "joining  their  waters  in  one.*'^  If  this  be  true 
then  even  in  Gen.  i.  we  find  the  thought  expressed  that  the  pri- 
meval waters  or  ocean  are  parents^  who  beget  and  would  bring 
forth ! 

Thus  here  we  have  another  striking  similarity — notwithstand- 
ing its  great  difference — between  the  Biblical  and  Babylonian  ac- 
counts of  the  creation !  In  both  accounts  the  primeval  waters  were 
thought  to  be  a  kind  of  androgyn,  male  and  female  in  one  person, 
who  thus  became  the  first  parents. 

The  writer  of  Gen.  i.  who  apparently  did  not  believe  in  an  an- 
drogynous monster,  retained  the  Tiamat  or  Tehom,  but  substituted 
for  the  apsu  "the  Spirit  of  Elohim'*'as  the  life-giving  power  of 

*  From  this  it  also  follows,  of  course,  that  the  expression  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  world*egg  theory,  which  some  scholars  want  to  find  here. 

'The  expression  "  spirit  of  Elohim"  seems  to  stand  in  P.  for  the  same  idea  at 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  9 

everything.  He  wanted,  it  is  true,  to  eliminate  the  androgynous 
character  of  the  primeval  ocean — the  result  we  know. 

Again  if  the  Tehom  is  =  Tiamat,  then  rfin  (the  darkness)  must 
be  =  Tiamat  too.  Thus  it  was  rightly  said  that  the  fight  of  Marduk 
with  Ti&mat  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  fight  of  the  light  against 
the  darkness. 

But  we  have  seen  above  that  the  god  Marduk  was  called  Elo- 
him  and  made  coeternal  with  Tehom,  and  that  simply  his  attribute 
was  retained  by  the  writer  of  Gen.  i.  in  order  to  help  him  to  fabri- 
cating his  days.  We  also  have  seen  that  the  functions  of  the  ilK 
are  in  contradiction  to  those  of  the  sun,  and  thus  must  be  spurious, 
i.  e.,  T.K  does  not  belong  to  the  original  account  of  Genesis '}  it  must 
be  left  out,  if  we  would  restore  Gen.  i.  to  its  original  text. 

Bearing  this  in  mind  the  account  of  Genesis  i.  contains  a  well 
connected  genealogy,  which  is  as  follows: 

Tohu-vabohn 

"waters" — Tehom 

"  spirit  of  Elohiin"^K3arkness 


waters  which  are  above  the  firmament 


'the  firmament  of  heaven  "  or  "  heaven ' 


waters  which  are  below  the  firmament ' 


the  dry  Rronnd' 
cr  "earth" 


the  waters ' 


the  two  great  lights,  i.  e.,  "  the  sun  "  and     "  grass, 
"the  moon"  and  "the  stars"  trees," 


"  herbs,"  "  fruit-        "  swarms  of  living 
'animals,"  and       creatures,"  "fowls," 
beasts"  "fishes" 


"man" 

I  would  draw  the  reader's  attention  here  to  the  fact  that  **the 
waters  above  and  below  the  firmament"  are  said  to  come  from  the 
Tehom,  or  the  darkness,^  a  peculiarity  which  will  be  explained 
later  on. 


the  K*1?2**n  of  the  Targums !     It  was  used  in  order  to  avoid  as  much  as  possible  the 
"anthropomorphic  idea"  of  God. 

*  If  it  did  it  ought  to  be  made  coeternal  with  Jahveh-Elohim,  as  Marduk  was. 
But  this  would  again  be  fatal — for  in  that  case  it  would  not  be  the  first  act  of  Elo- 
bimi 


lO  THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

From  the  analogy  above  given  it  will  be  seen  that  **man'*  or 
the  ** creation  of  man,"  if  we  take  our  stand  on  the  account  of  Gen. 
i.,  cannot  be  referred  either  to  one  or  to  the  other  side,  i.  e.,  we  do 
not  know  whether  he  was  a  descendant  of  the  **  waters  above  the 
firmament"  or  of  **the  waters  below  the  firmament,"  from  which 
latter  the  '* earth"  and  its  ** creatures'*  took  their  origin.  All  we 
learn  is  this :  '*man  was  created  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  Elo- 
him  " — a  tv  Sta  Stotr,  which  tells  us  that  man  looks  exactly  like  Elo- 
him.^  The  Babylonian  account  tells  us  that  man  was  made  out  of 
divine  blood  mixed  with  earth.  The  writer  of  Gen.  i.  with  his 
monotheistic  idea  could,  of  course,  never  admit  that  the  ** blood  of 
another  god"  was  spilt — because  there  existed  no  other  god.  But 
he  apparently  accepted  the  idea  that  man  was  in  some  way  or  an- 
other connected  with  the  gods,  hence  he  made  him  to  be  created 
in  the  image  and  likeness  of  Elohim.  The  account  given  in  the 
second  chapter  of  Genesis  has,  however,  for  '* image  and  likeness" 
the  "breathing  into  man's  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,"  which  was 
done  by  Jahveh.  In  blood  there  is  life,  and  life  is  a  breath, — was 
the  faith  of  the  Jahvistic  writer.  Accordingly  he  substituted  for  the 
blood  of  God  the  ** breath  of  God,"  thus  connecting  **man"  again 
with  his  creator. 

We  have  seen  then  that  the  fight  of  the  light  against  the  dark- 
ness does  not  belong  originally  to  the  account  of  Gen.  i.  But,  one 
ma}'  rightfully  ask,  if  it  does  not,  how  are  the  apparent  indications 
of  such  a  fight  to  be  found  in  Gen.  i  to  be  explained?  To  answer 
this  question  it  will  be  necessary  for  us  to  examine  the  Babylonian 
account  of  the  creation  and  see  whether  the  original  form  of  that 
account  contained  the  fight  of  Marduk  with  Tiamat  or  not. 

That  the  Babylonian  creation  story  had  its  development  and 
required  time  to  assume  the  shape  in  which  we  now  know  it,  is  of 
course  self-evident.  If  we  are  able  to  trace  the  different  threads 
in.  the  development  of  the  Hebrew  literature  by  employing  critical 


*Corap.  here  Gudea's  dream  where  <*'"e''  Nin-Gir-su  is  said  "to  be  a  man," 
i,  e.,  where  a  god  is  said  to  look  "like  a  man." — This,  no  doubt,  is  the  older  con- 
ception :  gods  always  look  like  the  men  to  whose  tribe  or  nation  they  belong.  See 
below. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  II* 

methods,  I  think  v.e  ought  to  be  able  also  to  trace  the  threads, — 
delicate  and  flimsy  though  they  are, — which  the  inscriptions  of 
early  Babylonia  put  into  our  hands.  In  the  following  then  I  shall 
try  to  show  that  even  the  Babylonian  creation  story  did  not  origi- 
nally contain  such  a  myth  as  the  fight  of  Marduk  with  Tiamat. 

* 
*  * 

We  have  now  to  crave  the  reader's  indulgence  for  a  rather 
technical  discussion  of  a  few  points  which  at  first  sight  may  seem 
indifferent;  but  this  course  of  procedure  is  indispensable  for  an 
analysis  of  the  creation-stor}'  of  Genesis.  Having  established  the 
genealogical  order  of  the  Babylonian  divinities,  we  shall  be  better 
able  to  understand  the  kinship  between  the  Hebrew  Genesis  and 
the  Sumerian  cosmogony. 

Before  entering  on  our  investigation,  it  is  necessary  to  saj' a 
few  words  about  the  meaning  of  NIN,  EN,  LUGAL,  and  DIN- 
GIR. 

In  the  "trilingual  list  of  gods,"  II  R  59,  we  read  in  Col  I, 
1.  48 : 

•^-f'^MUL  DIN-TIR.'^'  I  '^-^'NIN-DIN-TIR^'  j^-^^-'AMAR-UD 

The  •^'"s'^AMAR-UD  is  Marduk.  Marduk  was  the  city-god  of  Baby- 
lon. But — and  this  is  important — he  is  not  called  in  the  *' Sume- 
rian "  column  EN  but  NIN.  This  NIN  is  rightly  transcribed  in 
the  EME-SAL  column  by  U,  i.  e.,  MUL  or  UMUN  =  lord.  Hence 
NIN  must  mean  here  =  belu  or  **lord."  This  does  not  prove  that 
Marduk  as  the  city-god  of  Babylon  became  a  ** feminine."  He  re- 
tained his  gender  and  remained  a  male  deity,  for  in  the  same  list. 
Col.  II,  1.  17,  we  read: 

'^'"«^^MUL  (fem.!)  DIN-TIR-"  |  **'"«^'NIN-DIN.TIR.»''  |  ""Be-lit 
'^"Bab-ilu-" ! 

,    NIN,  then,  in  this  connection,  i.  e.,  when  used  with  the  name 
of  a  city,^  may  stand  either  for  belu  or  b€ltu,  i.  e.,  for  his  lordship. 


*  Forming  with  the  name  of  the  city  a  "  proper  name"  as  in  *"''s^' Nin-Gir-«a 
or  standing  in  apposition  as  in  K.  B.  IIP.  pp.  24,  46.  <''"i^''^Dumu-zi-za-ab.  nin  Ki' 
nu-nir-"^  II 


12  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

or  her  lordship.  In  most  cases  we  will  be  able  to  determine  ex- 
a<:tly  the  gender  either  from  the  syllabaries  or  from  the  **  apposi- 
tion" that  may  follow  such  a  name,  as  for  instance,  '^'"^''NIN-EN- 
LIL-'''  is  explained  in  the  very  same  list  by  **the  wife  of  Ninib." 

The  <^'"^'NIN-GIR-SU  is  called  in  the  oldest  Babylonian  in- 
scriptions the  ur-sag  or  ur-sag  lig-ga,  **the  mighty  prime  minister" 
of  Bel, — hence  the  city-god  of  Gir-su  must  have  been  a  male  divin- 
it}'.  It  is  indeed  strange  that  male  gods,  when  becoming  gods  of 
certain  cities,  should  be  called  NIN  ;  we  should  expect  of  course 
for  NIN  either  EN  or  LUGAL.  EN — as  far  as Tknow — is  never 
used  in  this  connection,  but  only  LUGAL,  see,  e.  g.,  the  name 
'^■"^'^LUGAL-ERIM-*''.  The  EME-SAL  texts  distinguish  clearly 
between  the  gender  by  using  two  different  signs,  but  not  so  the 
Sumerian  of  the  lists  or  bilingual  inscriptions, — and  also  not  the 
old  Sumerian.  This  latter,  when  intending  to  make  the  gender 
absolutely  certain,  uses  for  NIN  the  word  LUGAL.  LUGAL 
then  always  denotes  a  male,  while  NIN  may  stand  either  for  a  male 
or  a  female  divinity.  What  may  possibly  be  the  reason  for  the  use 
of  this  NIN? 

We  know  that  in  Babylonia  every  city  had  its  special  god.  As 
long  as  the  city  was  in  possession  of  her  patron  she  enjoyed  inde- 
pendence. But  in  case  the  *'god  left  the  city,"  or  "went  out  of 
the  city,"  i.  e.,  when  the  god  was  carried  away  captive  by  a  victori- 
ous king,  the  city  lost  her  independence.  The  city-god,  then,  was 
something  which  had  to  be  defended  and  protected,  which  had  to 
be  fostered  and  cared  for,  but  which  could  also  be  *naken,"  either 
by  force,  inclination,  or  otherwise,  which  could  be  chosen,  betrayed 
or  given  away,  which  could  be  sold, — all  characteristics  of  a 
woman  !  Even  we  are  in  the  habit  of  personifying  our  nations  as 
feminine;  note,  for  example:  Helvetia,  Bavaria,  Borussia,  Ger- 
mania,  Britannia,  and  Columbia ! 

.  From  this  also  follows  that  a  name  like  *''"^  N in- Gir-su  is  no 
proper  name  but  a  surname  or  attribute.  This  is  even  grammatically 
indicated  in  the  oldest  inscription,  for  we  find  very  often  after  the 
name  '""^''Nin-Gir-su  the  double  postposition  KA-GE.     In  this  re- 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  1 3 

spect  Galet  A  of  Eannatum  ^  is  especially  interesting.  Compare, 
e.  g.,  such  expressions  as  these: 

*•  Eannatum a-sum-ma  ''•"ff»' Nin-Gir-su-ka-ge,  i.  c,  Eannatum. . .  .to  whom 

power  was  given  by  (ge)  the  lord  of  (ka)  Girsu."  * 

Such  surnames  or  attributes  of  gods  are  very  common,  yes,  we 
may  rightly  sa}^  that  all  the  names  of  the  gods  we  know  are  really 
not  proper  names  at  all,  but  attributes  or  appellatives. 

To  establish  this,  I  may  be  allowed  to  cite  a  few  more  ex- 
amples. 

The  name  *^'"«^''Innanna  cannot  be  a  proper  name,  for  we  find 
the  double  postposition  after  it.  If  it  were  a  proper  name,  only  one 
postposition  would  be  expected.         ~^^ 

*  *  Eannatum mu-shag-sa-a  ^*^^''  Innanna-ka-ge. "  ' 

Eannatum dam  ki-ag  ***'»8^  Innanna-ka-ge.*" 

Hence  we  cannot  translate  the  inscription  of  Lugaltarsi  otherwise 
than  has  been  done  in  E.  B.  H.  p.  1253,  viz.:  For  the  king  of  the 
lands  (=Bel)  and  for  Innanna,  the  mistress  of  the  divine  Innanna, 
etc. 

Among  other  names  for  ''gods"  which  are  used  with  a  double 
postposition  may  be  mentioned  :  **'"*^'  Nin-char-sag,^  **'"^'  Dumu-zi- 
zu-ab,«  ^'''^'  Pa-sag,'  gal  -|-  (ga) lu  +  *^'"^''  Erim,^  and  even  ''•"^'  En-ki,'' 
etc.,  etc. 

^  See  my  Early  Babylonian  History  (afterwards  to  be  referred  to  as  E.  B.  H.), 
p.  83  ff. 

*For  other  examples  see  ibid.,  col.  VII,  9;  V,  i;  VI,  16;  VII,  16  Cone  of 
Entemena  =  E.  B.  H.  p.  97  ff.,  col.  V,  5  et  fassim. 

'  E.  B.  H.  p.  84  :  Eannatum who  was  called  by  the  heart  of  the  goddess  of 

Innanna. 

*  D^  3  B*,  col.  II,  9 :   "  Eannatum the  beloved  husband  of  the  goddess  of 

Innanna.   Thus  it  has  to  be  translated !  In  this  passage  it  is  preceded  by:  Eannatum 

ku-li  ki-ag  *^'"2?''  Gal  -f-  galu-Erim, — both  sentences  have  to  be  separated  on 

accQunt  of  the  parallelism.  If  we  do  not,  then  Lugal-Erim  would  become  the  dam- 
ki-ag  of  Innanna.  That  kings  often  do  call  themselves  a  "dam "  or  husband  of  a 
certain  goddess  is  evident  from  E.  B.  H.  pp.  230,  231,  and  notes. 

"^ Galet  A  =  E.  B.  H.  p.  84.  col.  II.  3;  comp.  D&.  XLIV..  col.  IV.  xo. 

•Z.  r,  col.  II,  9.  'Z.  r.,  p.  85,  1.  II.  'Z.  r.,  1.  13. 

•Z.  c,  p.  84,  1.  7.  «*'n«nrEn.iji  becomes  thus  the  divine  EN  of  KI.  According 
to  this  analogy  we  ought  to  expect  also,  /.  c.  Col.  I.  1.  6,  for  mu-pad-da '""i^'^Eo- 


14  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

Not  only,  however,  before  the  names  of  cities  may  NIN  stand 
for  belu.  There  are  quite  a  good  many  **  names  of  gods"  composed 
with  NIN,  which  can  signify  male  gods  onl}'.  In  the  composition 
of  these  names  the  NIN  seems  to  mean  as  much  as  **  possessor  of* 
=  Arabic  dhu,  dhat.  To  this  class  belong,  among  others,  the  fol- 
lowing :  *''"^'  Nin-a-gal,i  '^^'^  Nin-dar-a  lugal-en,'-'  ^'"^"  Nin-gish-zi-da,* 
dingirjyTjj^.gjj.  4  Nin-dub  lugal-en,*  '^'°^' Nin-sar  gir-lal  ^'"^'Nin-Gir-su.^ 

If  in  this  way  NIN  may  stand  ioi  belu  as  well  as  for  beltu,  we 
have,  in  order  to  determine  the  gender  of  the  gods,  w^hose  names 
are  compounded  with  NIN,  to  pay  great  attention  to  the  titles 
or  other  attributes  which  may  or  may  not  follow.  They  will  show 
us  in  most  cases  whether  the  god  in  question  is  either  a  male  or  a 
female. 

The  titles  or  attributes  stand  almost  always  in  apposition, 
i.  e.,  they  follow'^  the  name  of  the  god.  In  these  appositions  we 
have  to  distinguish  between  : 

(i)  LULAL  or  EN  and  NIN  on  the  one  hand  and; 

(2)  LUGAL  and  NIN  on  the  other. 
With  regard   to  (i)   as   well   as  (2)  the  following  examples  may 
suffice : 

Ur-Gur**  dedicates  an  inscription  to  *''"2'' En-lil,  lugal-kur-kur-ra 
lugal-a-ni,  i.  e.,  to  Bel,  king  of  the  lands,  his  king.      *'The  king  of 

lil-ge  =  <^'''2'^En-lil-ka-ge.     En-lil,  however,  I  have  not  yet  found  with  a  double 
postposition. 

*  K.  B.  Ill',  p.  20  :  "  the  possessor  of  great  power,"  whom  Jensen,  /.  c,  p.  21, 
note  *,  takes  according  to  II.  R.  58,  58,  to  be  "  Ea  als  Gott  der  Schmiedeknnst." 
K.  B.  IIP.  p.  24.     E.  B.  H.  182,  185. 

2K.  B.  IIP.  pp.  24,  28,  46,  and  E.  B.  H.  182,,  et  jfassim. 
'K.  B.  IIP.  pp.  28,  46,  "the  possessor  of  the  tree  of  life." 

*  "The  possessor  of  the  gir,"  see  below. 

«I.  R.  5.  XXIII.     Gudea  Cyl.  A  VI.  5.  "  the  possessor  of  the  tablet." 

*E.  B.  H.  pp.  52,  54  (corrected !  see  below,  p.  23,  6). 

'  Exceptions  where  the  attributes  precede  the  names  are  rare,  but  they  occur. 
Comp.,  e.  g.,  en  dinffir Nin-Gir-su  "the  lord  Nin-Gir-su  in  Gudea  Cyl.  A.  and  B. 
pass.  "Am  Shir-pur-la-''' azag  "^'^e'^Ga-tum-dug"  "the  mother  of  Shirpurla,  the 
glorious  Gatumdug,"  Gudea,  Statue  B.  VIII,  56,  K.  B.  Ill',  p.  46.  dingir  ra-mu 
dingirNin-gish-zi-da  "  my  god  N."  /.  c,  col.  IX,,  4,  and  probably  a  few  more. 

*  E.  B.  H.  p.  222.  For  other  examples,  see  E.  B.  H.  passim  and  K.  B.  III.» 
p.  74-78. 


THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  I5 

the  lands"  and  Ur-Gur*s  ** king"  is  Bel  by  virtue  of  his  being  a 
god.  The  former  is  his  attribute,  the  latter  expresses  his  relation 
to  Ur-Gur.  Rim-Sin^  dedicates  an  inscription  to  '*'"^'' Nin-shach  en- 
gal-lal  .  .  .  .  lugal-a-ni-ir.  The  **en-gallar'  expresses  that  which 
Nin-shach  is  by  virtue  of  his  being  a  god,  the  lugal-a-ni-ir  expresses 
the  relation  in  which  he  stands  to  Rim-Sin. 

From  these  two  observations  we  may  draw  the  following  rule : 

Every  male  god  when  brought  into  relation  to  men  (kings,  or 
others  who  dedicate)  is  always  a  LUGAL  or  **king,"  but  by  virtue 
of  his  being  a  god,  he  may  be  either  a  "LUGAL  or  king"  or  an 
**EN  or  lord."  Every  goddess,  however,  is  by  virtue  of  her  being 
a  goddess'  as  well  as  when  brought  into  relation  to  men  always  a 
NIN'  or  '* mistress."  No.  (i)  expresses  the  titles  of  gods  as  gods. 
No.  (2)  expresses  the  relation  of  gods  to  men! 

If  this  observ^ation  be  true  we  may  lay  down  another  rule; 
NIN  when  in  apposition  indicates  always  "s.  female  god,  or  goddess.* 
Thus  there  ought  to  correspond,  e.  g.,  to  a  LUGAL-EN  a  NIN- 
EN.  Indeed  w^e  find  this  to  be  true  !  The  ^'"^'  Nin-dar-a^  is  called 
LUGAL-EN «,  while  '^'•^Nina  has  the  apposition  NIN-EN'  or 
NIN-EN-NA.8 

We  have  seen  above  that  even  the  name  '^'"^''EN-KI  must  be 
composed  of  two  separate  names  on  account  of  the  double  post- 
position which  it  may  suffer  behind  it.  The  *'''*^*'EN-KI  is  as  the 
EN  indicates  a  male  god,  hence  is  followed  also  by  LUGAL'  in 

U.  R.  3  No.  X  =  K.  B.  IIP.  p.  94,  3.  For  a  similar  case  see  IV.  R.  35  No.  6 
=  K.  B.  IIP.  p.  96.  6. 

-  See  below  the  attributes  of  the  wife  of  En-lil. 
^E.  B.  H.  p.  125.     222  et passim. 

*  Except  when  NIN  stands  before  the  name  of  a  CITY  or  place  !  See  p.  11,  i. 
dinsirDuiuu-zj-zu-ab  NIN  Ki-nu-nif-''' ,  in  this  case  NIN  may  be  doubtful !  Further 
attributes  or  the  name  itself  of  the  god  must  explain  the  gender  in  this  case ! 

^  *  Also  read  ^'"P'Nin-si-a. 

'   •E.  B.  H.  p.  193.     K.  B.  IIP.  p.  24.     Lugal-en  probably =the  "lord  of  the 
priests,"  i.  c.,  "the  highpriest." 

'  E.  B.  H.  pp.  193,  224,  note 4,  Nin-en  probably  =  "  the  mistress  of  the  priests," 
i.  e..  "the  high  priestess." 

•  E.  B.  H.  p.  87  note. 

•See,  e.  g..  lugal  zu-ab,  D6c.  4  B«,  col.  IV,  3. 


l6  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

apposition.  The  counterpart  of  '^'"«^'EN-KI  is  ""^'NIN-KI,  which 
name  is  also  to  be  found  in  the  Earliest  Babylonian  Inscriptions.^ 

Here,  then,  we  have  another  peculiarity.  We  do  not  find  LU- 
GAL  -|-  X  for  the  male  god,  as  we  might  expect,  but  always  EN. 
**EN"  in  such  names  as  '••"'^'^EN-KI  indicates  the  masculine,  while 
**NIN"  indicates  ih^  feminine  gender.  What  maybe  the  reason 
for  THIS  peculiarity?  The  answer  is  :  male  or  masculine  gods  are 
LUGAL  =  king  from  the  standpoint  of  men  to  whom  kings,  of 
course,  also  belong,  but  EN,  when  compared  with  their  equals, 
their  wives,  i.  e.,  **the  husband-god"  and  the  **wife-god,"  are  on 
the  same  level  considered  by  themselves,  but  when  brought  into 
relation  with  men  the  **husband-god  "  seems  to  enjoy  a  greater  pre- 
rogative; nay,  the  kings  considered  themselves  equal  to  a  goddess, 
hence  they  sometimes  called  themselves  the  **dam"  or  husband 
of  this  or  that  goddess.'  — 

To  the  same  class  with  '''"^''EN-KI  belong  among  others  also 
dinpr£2si.LIL,  ^°'-"EN-ZU,3'^'"'-'''EN-GUR,*  '''"^^'EN-Ba-u,*  etc.,  etc. 
In  all  these  names  the  ** EN"  corresponds  to  our  ** husband,"  or 
**Mr."  If  NIN  were  substituted  for  EN,  we  should  have  the 
**wife"  or  ''Mrs." — hence  the  real  proper  name  of  **'"*^'EN-KI 
would  be  '^'"^'KI;  the  EN  or  NIN  having  been  put  before  the  KI 
in  order  to  distinguish  the  ** Jiusband^^  from  the  **wife,*'  or  the 
**Mr."  from  the  *'Mrs."^  In  course  of  time  these  names  came  to 
be  looked  upon  as  real  proper  names,  and  only  now  and  then  does 
their  grammatical  construction  betray  to  us  the  true  fact,  i.  e.,  that 


»E.  B.  H.  p.  8i,  note  i. 

*See  above,  p.  13,  4.  This  fact  also  probably  contributed  somewhat  to  the 
"divine  character"  of  the  kings. 

'See  £.  B.  H.  Index,  gods.  p.  443  sub  E. 

*  So  far  not  found  in  the  oldest  inscriptions.  Thureau-Dangin  in  C.  R.  1902, 
Janvier,  p.  82,  note  2.  proposes  to  read  the  sign  GUR  =  Engur,  referring  to  C.  T. 
XII.  38128,  Rev.  1.  18  compared  with  II.  R.  58,  53a. 

^Thus  it  happened  that  in  course  of  time  the  deity  was  differentiated,  i.  e., 
the  deity  was  originally  a  self-perpetuating  being,  a  kind  of  androgyn,  and  later  on 
was  separated  or  thought  to  exist  as  "  husband  "  and  "  wife."  Comp.  the  <•*"«*'' GUR, 
dinprEN-GUR,  **'"s''NIN-GUR  and  also  Gen.  ii.  21,  where  Eve  is  said  to  have  been 
made  "from  one  of  the  ribs,"  i.  e.,  better  " sides"  of  Adam. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  X  I7 

they  are  names  composed  out  of  EN  resp.  NIN  -}-  the  real  name  of 
the  god. 

The  last  point  which  we  have  to  discuss  is  the  use  of  the  name 
DINGIR  or  '*god."  The  oldest  Babylonian  inscriptions  are  always 
very  careful  to  put  the  *^'"^''-sign  before  the  name  of  a  god.^  The 
names  for  god  Anu'^  and  Gu-la^  are  probably  the  only  ones  which 
generally  occur  without  the  dingir-sign.* 

The  negligence  in  omitting  the  sign  dingir  before  the  names  of 
gods  begins  at  the  time  of  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon.  Above  we 
have  seen  that  every  city  had  its  god.  Not  only  the  cities,  how- 
ever, but  also  the  different  kings  and  patesis  (priest-kings)  bad  their 
favored  deities  whom  they  termed  dingir y — while  the  others  were 
either  LUGAL  or  NIN.  The  god  of  Urukagina  was  **'"«^'  Nin-shul- 
lil/  that  of  Eannatum,*  and  Entemena  -? 

•^'"s^'Dun-gur^  or  also  written '''"'^'Dun-gur-an;* 

dingir^in-a-gaP^  is  the  god  of  Ur-Ba-u; 

ciin^ir  Nin-gish-zi-da"  that  of  Gudea ; 

*»'«?*' Lugal-banda^  that  of  Sin-gashid,  etc.,  etc. 

If  cities  and  kings  and  patesis  had  their  special  gods,  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  also  the  ** lands"  and  *' countries,"  the 
'* families"   and  *' tribes,"  in  fact,  every  ''person,"  had  his  own 

*  Except  when  the  name  of  a  god  occurs  in  a  name  of  a  city :  e.  g.,  EN-LIL-" 
=  Nippur,  for  ^ineirEN-LIL-'''.     But  see  E.  B.  H.,  Index,  Gods. 

2  In  thg  Old  Babylonian  inscriptions  the  god  Ann  is  mostly  written  AN-NA, 
but  also  AN-E  (Gudea,  Statue  B,  VIII.  45  =  K.  B.  IIP.  p.  46),  An-nu-um,  ""An- 
nu-um,  and  dingir  ^^  occur,  see  E.  B.  H,  Index,  Gods,  p.  442.  Here  also  belongs, 
of  course,  his  wife  An-nat. 

'  See  E.  B.  H.  p.  443. 

i  dingir  ga.-u,  when  in  proper  names  and  written  "  Ba-bi,"  has  never  the  sign  of 
dingir. 

»E.  B.  H.  p.  51.  «E.  B   H.  p.92. 

'  E.  B.  H.  p.  108.     K.  B.  IIP.  p.  72.       »  E.  B.  H.  p.  92. 

•E.  B.  H.  pp.  115,  116,  118.  '»Ur-Ba-u  V.  4,  5  =  K.B.III».  p.  24. 

"E.  B.  H.  pp.  196,  199.  207.  K.  B.  Ill',  pp.  28,  46  (=  Statue  B,  III.  4.  5. 
IX.  4).     Cyl.  A.  XVIII.  15  etfassim. 

"K.  B.  IIP.  p.  84.  Lugal-banda  is  the  husband  of  Nin-sun,  who  again  is  the 
mother  of  Nin-gish-zi-da  (Cyl.  B.  23,  5",  6"),  and  this  latter  is  said  to  be  a  dumu-ka 
An-na-kam  (Cyl.  B.  1.  c).  For  dumu-ka  =  "descendant,"  see  E.  B.  H.  pp.  14, 
15. 


l8  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

special  god.  The  inscriptions  so  far  accessible  to  scholars  do  not 
shed  much  light  upon  this  question,  yet  there  are  at  least  one  or 
two  examples  that  countries  had  their  special  gods :  *^'"^'  Mar-tu, 
**the  god  of  the  Westland,"  i.  e.,  of  the  Ammorites.  ^  In  the  old 
Babylonian  inscriptions.  Babylonia,  when  spoken  of  in  its  totality, 
i.  e.,  when  South  and  North  Babylonia  are  meant,  is  called: 

Ki-en-gi-ki-Urdu  (BUR-BUR). 
A  ^'"s'^Urdu  (BUR-BUR)-zi  occurs  in  an  inscription  of  Ninkagina' 
and  in  Cyl.  B  of  Gudea.*  The  ZI  in  the  name  of  this  god  is,  no 
doubt,  the  same  as  that  in  the  name  '""^"^EN-LIL-ZI,  which  latter 
name  is  explained  by  iiu-bciiida-(?)  ""Bel  (EN-LIL),*  i.  e.,  "the 
servant  of  Bel."  The '^'"^'' Urdu-zi  then  is  the  ** servant"  of  ** god 
Urdu,*'  and  as  *^'''^^'EN-LIL  is  the  city-god  of  Nippur,  so  probably 
jg  dintrir  u^^^  the  country-god  of  Urdu  (BUR-BUR),  which  latter 
again  with  **KI"or  **  place  "sign  before  or  after  it,  signifies  the 
country  **  Akkad."  In  like  manner,  we  might  explain  Ki-en-gi  as  the 
land  (KI)  of  EN-GI— and  EN-GI  being  = '^husband"  or ''Mr." 
GI — we  should  have  here  another  god  of  a  country,  viz.,  that  of 
Shumer.* 

The  results  of  our  investigation  so  far  would  be  as  follows : 

NIN  before  or  in  composition  with  the  names  of  cities  and 
deified  attributes  may  stand  either  for  a  male  or  female 
god, — the  context  or  syllabaries  or  other  texts  must  be 
taken  in  to  decide  the  gender  of  each  respective  god. 

LUGAL  before  or  in  composition  with  the  names  of  cities 
or  deified  attributes  stands  always  for  a  male  divinity. 

NIN  in  apposition  or  as  attribute  of  a  divinity  always  shows 
that  that  divinity  is  feminine  \  if  it  be  masculine  the  word 
LUGAL  or  EN  is  used. 


^  E.  B.  H.  p.  411.  Here  belong,  of  conrse.  the  deified  attributes  <*'"P'Lugal- 
kUr-kur-ra,  *'*"e''Nin-cbar-sag,  etc. 

2  E.  B.  H.  p.  186.  »  Cyl.  B.  IX.  13.  *  II.  R.  59  col.  I.  20. 

'If  my  explanation  of  Shumer  =  Gir-su  (see  E.  B.  H.  p.  216  £f.)  be  correct, 
the  *i'"^''Nin-Gir-su,  the  surname,  would  stand  for  the  god  GI  or  better  for  *""^' 
EN-GI.  Such  a  «iincirEN-GI  seems  to  occur  in  IV.  R.  35  No.  6  =  K.  B.  Ill',  p. 
96.  6. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I..  I9 

NIN  and  EN  in  proper  names  for  gods  correspond  to  our 
**Mr.*'  and  **Mrs.'*  The  real  name  of  the  god  being 
always  expressed  by  the  sign  that  follows  the  Nin  or  EN 
respectively.  . 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  may  now  consider  the  names  of  the 
different  gods  themselves. 

I.   The  god  LIL. 

Mr.  LIL,  according  to  our  rules  laid  down  above,  would  have 
to  be  called  '^-^^EN-LIL  and  Mrs.  LIL,  ^-^^NIN-LIL~both  occur 
in  the  oldest  inscriptions.^  '''"^''EN-LIL  is  called  lugal-kur-kur.» 
This  attribute  has  become  in  course  of  time  even  a  proper  name, 
to  which  the  sign  dingir  was  prefixed  :  '''"^'Lugal-kur-kur.'  If  EN- 
LIL  was  a  lugal-kur-kur,  then  his  wife  must  have  been  a  nin-kur- 
kur ;  this  would  follow  from  the  analogy  of  the  case !  So  far  I  have 
not  yet  seen  an  inscription  where  NIN-LIL  is  called  nin-kur-kur, 
but  EN-LIL  is  called  also  lugal-an-ki,^  and  NIN-LIL  nin-an-ki.* 
Not  only  NIN-LIL  is  the  ''mistress  of  heaven  and  earth"  but  also 
''•"^''Nin-char-sag.*  This  latter  goddess  is  also  called  am  dingir- 
ri-ne^  and  am  tur-tur-ne,^  while  *^'''^' En-lil  has  the  title:  ab-ba  din- 
gir-dingir-ru-ne,^  and  is  the  same  as  the  *^"^'  Lugal-dingir-e-ne.^® 

Am  dingir- ri-ne  is  also  the  attribute  of '*'"^'' Nin- tu.^^  **'»e*'Sal 
(var.  NIN)-in-si-na^^  is    called   am    kalam-ma  zi-gal  kalam   gim- 

*  For  the  different  writings  and  for  references  see  E.  B.  H.  Index,  gods,  sub. 
E.  and  N.,  pp.  443  and  445. 

2  "King  of  the  lands,"  E.  B.  H.  pp.  131,  134,  151  et passim. 

'E.  B.  H.  p.  125,  notes:  p.  132,  1.  14. 

*  "  King  of  heaven  and  earth,*'  Stele  of  Vultures,  London  23580,  col.  IT.  10. 

*  "Mistress  of  heaven  and  earth,"  E.  B.  H.  p.  125,  note  i. 
*E.  B.  H.  p.  199  and  note  5. 

»  "  Mother  of  the  gods,"  Ur-Ba-u  III.  8  =  K.  B.  IIP.  p.  22. 
}  "  Mother  of  the  children,"  E.  B.  H.  p.  198  and  note  I.  3. 

•E.  B.  H.  p.  97,  "father  of  the  gods,"  cp.  the  a-bu  ilini  banfl  in  Shalm.  II. 
Obelisk  1.  4. 

»nv.  R.  35,=»K.  B.  IIP.  p.  78,  "the  king  of  the  gods." 

"  E.  B.  H.  p.  199.  and  note  5. 

"  See  also  *""«?'' Innanna  *>'»»»' Nin-an  (sic  !  not  dingir)-8i-an-na  E.  B.  H.  p.  273. 


20  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

gim-me^  and  dumu-sag  an-azag-ga.^  This  latter  title  she  has  in 
common  with '''"^^'Ba-u,'  who  again  is  called  dumu  AN-NA*  or 
dumu-sag  AN-N A  ^  but  also  **''^'Ga-tum- dug  is  called  dumu  an- 
azag-gi  tu-da.^  *''°e^'Ba-u"  as  well  as ''*"^'''Ga-tum-dug«  are  called 
aln  Shir-pur-la-''',  i.  e.,  ''mother  of  Lagash,"  the  former  is  also 
known  under  the  name  Nia-an-da-gal-ki,^  as  such  again  she  is  iden- 
tical with  **'°^'Nin-char-sag  !^^^  EN-LIL'  was  called  lugal-kur-kur, 
and  the  nin-kur-kur  is  *^"'^' Innanna.^^  Especially  interesting  is  the 
**'''^'' Inn  anna  nin-char-sag^^ — this  latter  attribute  being  made  later 
on  a  proper  name,  thus  becoming  '^'"*''"  Nin-char-sag !  Other  attri- 
butes of  '**'*^ Innanna  are:  nin  me^^  and  nin  azag-nun-na.^* 

Sometimes ''■"^^'Nin-lil,*^  or  ^'"^'Innanna,i«  or  *^'°^^  Nin-char-sag" 
is  coupled  with  **'°^'  En-lil.  From  all  this  it  follows  that  the  above 
given  goddesses  were  originally  the  same  as  "Mrs."  Lil  or  NIN- 


*  "  Mother  of  the  world  (or  people),  who  created  the  creatures  of  the  world," 
E.  B.  H.  p.  202.  note  I.  i. 

^E.  B.  H.  p.  202,  note  I.  i  :  "^^  the  firstborn  of  An-azag-ga,  i.  e.,  the  glorious 
AN." 

3E.  E.  H.  p.  209:  Gudea,  Statue  H.  col.  I.  6. 

*E.  B.  H.  /.  c.  col.  I.  3  Gudea.  Statue  G.  col.  II.  5  =  K.  B.  IIP.  p.  58. 
"child  of  AN-NA." 

s  Gudea.  St.  B.  VIII.  59  =  K.  B.  IIP.  p  46,  Cyl.  A.  XX.  19. 

*  Gudea,  Cyl.  A,  II.  27  =  Thureau-Dangin,  Le  songe  de  Goudea,  p.  6,  "child 
bom  of  the  glorious  AN. 

'E.  B.  H.  p.  21.  But  see  also  T>kc.  p.  XXXIII.  and  Revue  archil,  1886, 
pi.  VII.  No.  I. 

8  Gudea,  Statue  B.  VIII.  56.  57  =  K.  B.  III>.  p.  46. 

*  "Mistress  of  the  wide  heaven  and  earth,"  E.  B.  H.  206,  and  note  12. 
^^  See  above,  p.  19,  6. 

1'  "Mistress  of  the  lands."  E.  B.  H.  p.  199  =  Gudea,  Statue  C.  col.  II.  2,  and 
p.  201,  col.  IV.  10. 

"P.  S.  B.  A.  XIII.  i59  =  K.  B.  IIP.  p.  98  (Rim-Sin):  "  Innanna  the  mistress 
of  the  mountain." 

»8  "  Mistress  of  battle,"  Gudea.  St.  B.  VIII.  61. 

**!"'The  glorious  exalted  mistress,"  Ur-Ba-u  IV.  8.     Jensen,  K.  B.  Ill*,  p.  22. 

"E.  B.  H.  p.  125,  note  i. 

*'  E.  B.  H.  p.  125,  note  2  :  here  after  <*'"^' Lugal-kur-kur,  which  is  here,  as  was 
shown  above,  p.  19,  3,  a  name  for  ***•«»' EN-LIL. 

"  Gudea.  Statue  B.  VIII.  47  =  K.  B.  III».  p.  46. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I,  21 

LIL,  who  is  expressly  called  the  dam  '''"•^'En-lil.^  They  represent 
NIN-LIL  in  her  different  capacities  and  are  *' deified"  attributes 
of  the  wife  of  LIL.  Such  a  ''deification"  of  attributes  seems  to 
have  been  almost  endless  and  began  at  the  very  earliest  times  of 
Babylonian  history. 

Not  only,  however,  the  attributes  contributed  greatly  to  the 
multiplicity  of  a  single  god  or  goddess,  but  also  the  places  where 
such  a  god  or  goddess  might  be  worshipped*.  Thus  we  have  a 
dinsrir  jjjnanna-edin,2  a  ^'"«'' Innanna-Erin-*''  (=the  goddess  of  Susa), 
and  in  later  times  the  Ishtar  of  Arba-ilu,  of  Nina,  and  Kidmuri. 
There  seem  to  have  been  even  different  EN-LILs,  as  is  apparent 
from  such  expressions  as  '^'"^^'En-lil  En-lil-'^'-a'  "the  Nippurian 
Enlil  or  Bel"  in  contradistinction  to  another 'B^X.  **'"^'Ba-u,  an- 
other name*  for '''"^•'Nin-lil,  the  wife  of  EN-LIL,  is  the  dumu  or 
sometimes  also  the  dumu-sag  of  AN-NA,  i.  e.,  the  "child"  or 
"firstborn  child"  of  AN-NA.* 

What  was  the  name  of  the  father  of  EN-LIL?  The  old  Baby- 
lonian inscriptions  do  not  give  an  answer  to  this  question,  but  from 
Assyrian  inscriptions  we  know  that  Bel  (the  Semitic  Babylonian 
for  EN-LIL)  was  called  the  mar  reshtu  shame,  i.  e.,  "the  firstborn 
child  of  heaven."  The  Assyrian  shame  translates  the  Sumerian 
AN  or  AN-NA,  hence  it  follows  also  EN-LIL  was  the  firstborn  of 
AN.  This  is  important :  '''"^''Ba-u  as  well  as  *^'°^En-lil  are  a  first- 
born ;  both  are  brother  and  sister  but  at  the  same  time  husband  and 
wife! 

(2)  The  children  of  EN-LIL. 
(tf)  The  god  ZU. 

»  "The  wife  of  Enlil,"  E.  B.  H.  p.  125,. 

2  See  E.  B.  H.  Index,  gods. 

'E,  B.  H.  p.  272  et  passim. 

*On  account  of  the  writing  "Ba-bi,"  see  the  proper  name  Ur-Ba-bi  and  the 
E-Ba-bi  in  E.  B.  H.  pp.  237,  326,  and  365.  I  consider  "Ba-u"  to  be  a  Semitic 
name.  In  later  inscriptions  occurs  also  the  writing '"'»?'' Ba-bur.  Ba-bi  ssgeni* 
tive,  and  Ba-bur  ==  dative  (sic  !)  is  in  Sumerian  impossible.  Ba-bur  is  formed  in 
Semitic  and  Samerian  fashion,  as  the  r  (^raor  ru)  shows.  In  good  Sumerian 
the  postposition  "ra"  is  shortened  to  r  only  after  i  as  in  ni,  cp :  dingir-ra-ni-ir, 
lugal-a-ni-ir  1    This  dingirBa-u  has  of  course  nothing  to  do  with  the  in*3  in  Gen.  i.  2. 

'  Sec  above,  p.  20,  4.  3.  » 


22  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

Mr.  ZU  is  EN-ZUi  and  Mrs.  ZU  is  NIN-ZU.  The  latter  is 
known  to  me  only  from  the  proper  name  Ur-'^'^^'^Nin-zu,  **the  ser- 
vant of  NIN-ZU."2  Another,  later,  name^  for  EN-ZU  was  **"^' 
Uru,*  or  mostly  written  *""«''  Uru-ki.* 

This  '''"^'^  Uru-ki  is  the  dumu-sag  •**"2''En-lil-lal.*  Under  the 
name  *"''*^'^  En-zu  he  is  known  also  as  the  amar-banda  '^^^^'^  En-lii® 
and  as  ^^'  Uru-ki  as  the  amar-banda  An-na^  The  wife  of  '''"«''  Uru- 
ki  is  also  called  *^'"^'Nin-gal.^  Uru-ki  or  En-zu  had  several  chil- 
dren : 

a.  *^^^'UD,»  who  is  called  **sib  tu-da  ^'"e-' Uru-ki. "^o  The  wife 
dineir^.^  of  '^'"^'UD  is  so  far  not  found  in  Old  Babylonian  texts. 

^    dingir  innanna  nin  char-sag  .  .  .  TUR-SAL  ^'"^'^EN-ZU-NA." 

With  •^'^e^'UD  probably  is  closely  connected  the  '^''^^^' AMAR- 
UD,  i.  e.,  *'the  ox  of  UD,"i2  or  *'the  child  of  UD.""  This  god 
does  not^*  occur  in   the  oldest  inscription.     He  is  known  to  us 

^  For  the  inscriptions  in  which  he  occurs  see  E.  B.  H.,  Index,  gods,  p.  443 
sub  E. 

^E.  B.  H,  412,  J.  To  read  Nin-a-zu  for  Nin-zu  is  not  necessary,  for  we  know 
from  later  inscriptions  that  EN-ZU  had  a  tvife,  and  if  he  had,  her  real  or  original 
name  must  have  been  **'"8^'^  Nin-zu. 

'WTiich  was  originally  an  attribute  of  EN-ZU. 

*See  E.  B.  H.,  Index,  gods,  p.  445  sub  U.  The  ki  at  the  end  probably  is  only 
the  prolongation  syllable.     Comp.  also  Uru-nung-'^-ma,  not  Uru-ki-nung-'^'ma. 

*  ••  The  firstborn  of  Enlil."  i  R.  i  No.  I.  4  (K.  B.  IIP.  p.  76  No.  3),  1  R.  i 
No.  I.  5  (K.  B.  Ill',  p.  78.  J.     I  R.  5  No.  XX  (K.  B.  IIP.  p.  92,  1.  21). 

•D^.  4  B-.  V.  I,  "  the  strong  ox  =  puru  iqdu,  remu  iqdu  of  En-lil. 

'  I  R.  I  No.  I.  4  =  K.  B.  IIP.  p.  76.  ,. 

«  "The  great  mistress,"  i  R.  2,  No.  VI.  i  (K.  B.  IIP.  p.  86,  J;  i  R  2,  No.  IV 
(K.  B.  Iir.  p.  90.  d). 

»  Generally  read  «i'°f*'  Uta. 

»o  "The  shepherd,  bom  by  Uru-ki."  i  R.  2,  No.  VI.  1  (K.  B.  IIP.  p.  86,  ,.) 

**  "Innanna,  the  mistress  of  the  mountain  ....  the  daughter  of  '^'"ff'^  En-zu, 
P.  S.  B.  A.  XIII.  159  (K.  B.  III'.  98J.  Comp.  also  Ishtar's  descent.  IV.  R.  31.  , 
(K.  B.  VI.  81):  ''"Ishtar  TUR-SAL  »"Sin.  For  the  writing  EN-ZU-NA  for  EN- 
ZU,  see  also  E.  B.  H.  p.  317.  j :  ^'^t^^Xix-^^'^^^'E.n'ixx'Xi.^ 

J' Comp.  the  "amar  banda"  above,  note  6. 

"Comp.  the  proper  name  *!'"?'' AMAR  <'i"ei'EN-ZU  =  Bur-Sin  II.,  King  of  Ui, 
E.  B.  H.  p.  266,  note  2.  According  to  the  analogy  of  this  name  AMAR-UD  might 
also  be  translated  by  "an  ox  is  UD  or  Shamash." 

"The  cities  Tu-tu-"^'  (E.  B.H.  p.  174).  Su-kur-ru-*^  (E,  B.  H.  p.  302.  xi)  do  not 
prove  anything.     OBI  No.  87.  I.  30  is  dineirUMU  and  not  «imsnrSHID  (E.  B.  H,  p. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OK  GENESIS  I.  23 

only  since  the  time  of  the  first  dynast}^  of  Babylon,  about  2400 
B.  C. 

In  this  line  somewhere  belongs  also  Nin-gish-zi-da,  Lugal- 
banda,  and  Nin-sun,  see  above  p.  584,  12. 

b.  Another  child  of '^'"^'^  En-lil  is '^•'^'Nin-Gir-su,^  the  city-god 
of  Girsu.  How  this  god  was  originally  called,  or  what  his  real 
name  was,  we  do  not  know  as  yet.^  He  is  a  male  divinity.'  The 
wife  of  ^'"^''  Nin-Gir-su  was  ^■''^''  Ba-u.*  A  sister  of  ***"^'  Nin-Gir-su  is 
dingir]^jjj^  s  The  dumu-ush-7  '^'"^^  Ba-u-me  banda  en  **'"^' Nin-Gir-su- 
ka-me®  are  hardly  the  sons  of  En-lil  and  Ba-u  but  of  Nin-Gir-su 


133).  Su-kur-ru-'^'  should  be  read  according  to  Br.  Mus.  82-8-16,  ,,  1.  45:  Shu- 
ru-up-pak.  Tu-tu-^'  had  probably  also  another  pronunciation.  Strange,  very 
strange,  is  that  Bur-Sin  II.,  whose  name  is  written  ^^'''i^r  aMAR  *"«&*«■  EN-ZU.  should 
be  worshipped  after  his  death  as  the  MUL-AMAR-UD  (E.  B.  H.  p.  316).  He.  be- 
ing while  alive  a  "child  of  Sin,"  becomes  sometime  after  bis  death  a  "child  of 
Shamash  "  ! 

^  Cyl.  A  of  Gudea.  col.  VII.  5 :  <»'"e^' Nin-gir-su  dumu  *^ir>En-lil-lal-ka.  Ibid.^ 
VIII.  21 :  dumu  dingirEn-lil-lal  en  <*■«&*' Nin-Gir-su,  cp.  also  ibid.  IX.  3. 

2 See,  however,  above,  p.  18.  'See  above,  p.  12. 

4dingirNin.Qij.-su-ge  d'"?irBa-u  dumu  An-na  dam  ki-ag-ga-ni.  Gudea,  Statue  G, 
col.  II.  3  ff.  (K.  B.  III^.  p.  58).  This  dJ'^fnrBa-u  is  of  course  the  same  as  the  '''"s^' 
Ba-u  the  wife  of  «*'"£'' En-lil. 

5  See  below  sub  "  god  KI." 

*  "  The  7  sons  of  Ba-u  the  banda  of  lord  Nin-Gir-su."  Gudea.  Cyl.  B.  XI.  11, 
12.  The  sign  ush  after  dumu  is  not  quite  clear.  The  7  is  plainly  written.  Ac- 
cording to  my  transcription  which  I  made  from  Price's  text,  there  seem  to  be  men- 
tioned only  6  sons.  Where  is  the  seventh  ?  The  six  mentioned  are  the  following 
(1.1.  4-10): 
1.  4.  '^'^e^Za-za-ru. 

5.  <*»'»«^'Im-pa-ud-du. 

6.  ur  (=  ishdu)-kalam-ta-ad-du-a. 

7.  «*i°8^'Ghe(GAN)-gir-nun-na. 

8.  dm8rirGhe(GAN)-shag-ga. 
g.  d«ntirKa-ur(=ishdu)-mu. 

10.  *''"P'Za-ar-mu. 

Uru-ka-gi-na  in  his  Barrel-Cylinder,  E.  B.  H.  p.  53,  mentions  also  the  follow- 
ing gods:  II.  10.  '^'"s^'Za-za-ru,  11.  <''"P''Im-pa-ud-dn,  12.  **'''«^ Gim-nun-ta-ud-du-a. 
14.  <^'"P'^Nin-sar  gir-lal  ''•"s^'^ Nin-Gir-su  (so  read  also  E.  B.  H.  p.  52,  1.  23,  where 
Nin-sar  is  mentioned  too,  and  comp.  for  this  reading  D&:.  p.  XLIX,  copie  de  F. 
Thureau-Dangin).  There  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  *^^»«^' Gim-nun-ta-ud-do-a 
is  =  ur-kalam-ta-ud-du-a,  hence  we  ought  to  read  above  1.  6  =  ^^'^s^ Ur-kalam-ta- 
ud-du-a.  For  the  formation  of  the  name  comp.  <»*'«*' E-SHIT-LAM-ta-ud-du-a  = 
Nergal. 


24  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

and  Ba-u.  A  child  of  *^''^^'  Nin-Gir-su  was  also  called  '*''^'  Dun-shag- 
ga.^  He  must  be  a  male  god,  because  Gudea  dedicates  the  inscrip- 
tion to  him  as  his  **king."^  He  probably  is  the  same  as  the  **'''^' 
Ghe(GAN)-shag-ga.8  Another  child  of  Nin-Gir-su  was  *""^'GM- 
alim  dumu  ki-ag-ga-ni  en  '*'"^'' Nin-Gir-su.* 

3.  The  god  AN. 

According  to  our  principle  laid  down  above,  '*Mr."  AN^  would 
be  called  EN-AN  and  Mrs.  AN  NIN-AN.  The  EN-AN  occurs  so 
far  only  in  proper  names,  as  e.  g.,  EN-AN-NA-tum.®  NIN-AN  is 
not  found  at  all.  That  there  indeed  existed  a  <*Mr."  and  a  "Mrs." 
AN  is  evident  from  the  Semitic  Inscription  of  An-nu-ba-ni-ni,  where 
they  are  called  An-nu-um  and  An-nat  respectively."  At  the  time 
of  the  fourth  dynasty  of  Ur  the  eleventh  month  was  sacred  to  him, 
which  month  was  therefore  called  *'the  month  of  the  festival  of 
An-na."8  He  was  the  father  of  EN-LIL.^  But  who  was  the  father 
of  AN?  Before  we  answer  this  question,  we  shall  have  to  consider 
the  god  KI. 

4.  The  god  KI. 

Mr.  KI  again  is  EN-KI  and  Mrs.  KI  NIN-KI.  Both  names 
occur  already  in  the  oldest  inscriptions.^^  Another  name  of  Mrs. 
KI  was  '^'"^"Dam-gal-nun-na,"  i.  e.,  "the  great  wife  of  Nun.'*  From 

^  E.  B.  H.  p.  195,  196  :  '!'"&'' Dun-shag-ga  dumu  ki-ag  **''^'Nin-Gir-su-ka  lugal- 
a-ni  Gudea. 

*  See  above,  p.  18.  '  See  preceding  page,  note  6. 

*  Gudea  Cyl.  B.  VI.  22:  "  Gal-alira  his  beloved  child  of  Nin-Gir-su."  See 
also  Statue  B.  II.  18,  19  (K.  B.  IIP.  p.  28),  and  E.  B.  H.  pp.  49,  51.  He  is  men- 
tioned by  Uru-ka-gi-na  in  the  same  inscriptions  in  which  the  other  sons  of  Nin- 
Gir-su  occur! 

^  For  the  different  writings  see  above,  p.  17,  2.  ' 

^See  E.  B.  H.,  Index,  proper  names,  p.  436  sub  £. 
'  E.  B.  H.  p.  177. 

*  E.  B.  H.  pp.  296,  299,  302  :  Itu  Ezen  An-na. 
*See  above,  p.  81. 

•  '^For  EN-KI  see  E.  B.  H.  Index,  gods,  p.  443  sub.  E..  and  for  NIN-KI  E.  B. 
H.  p.  81,  note  I.  The  later  writing  '^'"s'^EN-KI-ga  with  an  unknown  pronuncia- 
tion (Jensen,  K.  B.  III^  p.  21,  note  f )  I  have  not  yet  found  in  the  oldest  texts. 
Comp.  here,  however,  the  name  :  NUN-'''=  Urudug-''' or  Eridug-'''=Eridu. 

"E.  B.  H.  p  224.  In  the  later  Assyrian  texts  ^'"C'^Dam-gal-nun-na  became 
Damkina.     II.  R.  55.  53.  54d  (comp.  I.  16) :  (Ea)  Dam-ki-na  ashshati-sbu. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  25 

this  it  follows,  that  EN-KI  had  also  the  name  NUN,  or  else  NIN- 
KI  could  not  have  been  called  "the  great  wife  of  NUN."  EN-KI 
is  called  lugal  zu-ab.^  This  would  presuppose  a  title  **nin  zu-ab" 
for  NIN-KI;  I  have,  however,  not  yet  found  this  latter  title  for 
Mrs.  KI.  And  because  EN-KI  is  the  lugal  zu-ab  it  is  probable 
that  the '''"s^'Dumu-zi-zu-ab,'  also  shortened  to  **'°^'^Dumu-zi,2  was 
a  son  of  EN-KI.  Of  the  ^'"^" Dumu-zi  the  later  ""  Tammuz  is  no 
doubt  a  simple  contraction.^  To  ***'^' Dumu-zi  was  dedicated  at  the 
time  of  Sargon  I.  and  later  on  also  at  the  time  of  the  fourth  dy- 
nasty of  Ur,  the  sixth^  month,  which  was  called  **the  festival  of 
*»'"e''Dumu-zi."*  A  daughter  of  EN-KI  {hence  also  a  brother  of 
''^^^  Dumu-zi-zu-ab)  was  ^'"^'Nina.^  In  the  old  Babylonian  texts 
she  is  called  **a  child  of  NUN-""',"'  i-  e->  Eridu.     Gudea  calls  her: 

nin-en  nin-me  «*'°s^'  KAL  ^^^^  KAL-LA 
nin  ^'"^"^En-lil-gim  nam-tar-tar-ri.* 

The  epithet  nin-en  of  Nina  is  found  also  in  other  inscriptions' 
— but  always  after  Nina !  To  the  nin-en  must  correspond,  as  we 
have  seen,   a  lugal-en,   and  this  is  the  epithet  of  *^'°^'Nin-dar-a,^ 

*  "  The  king  of  the  zu-ab,  i.  e.,  the  apsfi  or  abyss."     D^.  4  B^.  col.  IV.  3. 
^  For  references  see  E.  B.  H.  Index,  gods,  p.  442,  sub.  D. 

3 See  E.  B.H.  p.  298. 

*  Thus  we  ought  to  number  and  not  as  it  was  done  in  E.  B.  H.  pp.  287  and 
306  (List  of  months,  the  first  two  columns).  The  itu  Ezen  She-il-la,  instead  of  being 
the  first,  ought  to  be  the  last  (12th  or  13th)  month  !  See  Thureau-Dangin*s  review 
of  my  E.  B.  H.  in  Z.  A.  XV.  p.  409.  The  festival  of  Tammuz  was  celebrated  in 
Phoenicia  and  Palestine,  likewise  originally  in  the  6th  month,  see  Ezekiel  viii.  1. 
(Masoretic  Text).  In  later  times,  beginning  with  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon 
about  2400  B.  C,  the  month  of  sowing  SHU-KUL-NA  became  the  month  Du-'-u- 
zu,  i,  e.,  Tammuz  or  the  4th  month.     E.  B.  H.  p.  306  (list  of  months). 

^Itu  Ezen  <''"fi^'Dumu-zi,  E.  B.  H.  p.  288,  306  (list). 

6 IV.  R.  I.  col.  II.  38. 

TdineirNinA  dumu  NUN-''*,  Gudea,  Cyl.  A.  XX.  16.  Comp.  ibid.  col.  II.  15, 
NUN-'''  is  the  city  of  NUN  or  EN-KI  J 

,*  Mistress  of  the  priests,  mistress  of  the  decrees  (?  ME  or  better  divinations 
tben=:shib  for  me  !)  of  the  <*'"£•' KAL,  mistress  who  like  En-lil  decrees  the  fates. 
Gudea,  Cyl.  A,  IV.  8,  9.  Comp.  also  Thureau-Dangin,  Songe  de  Goud^.  C.  R. 
1901,  p.  119,  and  the  other  epithet :  en-me-li  (s=enshi),  Cyl.  A.  II.  i,  16,  III.  26; 
IV.  \2  H  passim. 

•E.  B.  H.  pp.  193,  224  note  4,  87  note. 

'«E.  B.  H.  p.  193.     Ur-Ba-u,  col.  V.  2  (K.  B.  III».  p.  24). 


26  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

who  becomes  thus  the  husband  of  '*'''«^'  Nina.  Of  him  we  know  in 
other  respects  nothing. 

A  sciond  name  of  the  husband  of  Nina  was  '^'-e^'Nin-dub,  '*the 
lord  of  the  tablet  (writing),"  who  together  with  Nin-Gir-su  and 
Nidaba  appeared  unto  Gudea  in  his  dream,  and  who  presented 
unto  Gudea  the  ''plan  of  the  temple  E-ninnu."^  In  another  place* 
he  is  called  ''lugal-en"  and  has  therefore  exactly  the  same  title  as 
dineir  Niu-dar-a,  and  is  thus  identical  with  the  latter. 

A  third  name  of  Nin-dar-a  was '^'"^'Lugal-Erim-'''.*  Ur-Ba-u 
calls  himself  the  nitagh  ki-ag,  *'the  beloved  servant"  of  this  god.* 
My  reason  for  identifying  ^'"^^Lugal-Erim-"^' with  **''^  Nin-dar-a  = 
*^'"«^'Nin-dub=*^'"*^'Ud-ma-Nina-*''-shurit-ta  (see  below)  is  this:  La- 
gash  or  Shirpurla  consisted  of  four  suburbs,  each  suburb  being 
called  after  the  name  of  a  god,  or  better,  being  dedicated  to  a  god. 
These  suburbs  were : 

1.  Gir-su-''',  with  **'"^' Nin-Gir-su  as  its  god. 

2.  Uru-azag-ga  with  the  w^ife  of  Nin-Gir-su:  *''"«^'Ba-u  as  its 

patroness. 
3-   Nina-*'' with '""^  Nina,  and 
4.   Erim-*''  with  **»«^  Lugal-Erim-*^. 

It  seems  probable  tliat  Nina-'^' C**'*^' Nina)  stands  in  the  same 
relation  to  Erim-'''  (**'"«^'  Lugal-Erim-'^')  as  does  Uru-azag-ga  {^ 
Ba-u)  to  Gir-su-'''  C*'°*^'  Nin-Gir-su).  In  this  case,  we  would  have 
here  **two  couples,"  each  couple  consisting  of  husband  dJidi  wife. 
These  couples  are  also  "brothers  and  sisters" — for  *""«^' Nina  ex- 
pressly calls  **'"^' Nin-Gir-su  my  brother.^  If  this  observation  be 
true,  then  *''"^  Lugal-Erim-'''  would  be 

(i)  the  husband  of  Nina  and 


*See  Gudea,  Cylinder  A.  col.  VI.  5  and  V.  2  (where  he  is  not  mentioned  with 
name)  and  Thureau-Dangin,  Songe  de  Goud^,  p.  121. 

'  I.  R.  5.  XXIII.=  Winckler,  Altbabylonische  KeUschrifttexte,  p.  4,  No,  iia. 

»E.  B.  H.  p.  113.     Jensen.  K.  B.  Ill*,  p.  20  (Ur-Ba-u  col.  11.  I.  2). 

*  Jensen,  /.  c, 

'Gudea,  Cyl.  A.  V.  17  and  11.     Sec  below,  p.  27,  5. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  ^'J 

(2)  the  brother  of  Nin-Gir-su,  i.  e.,  he  would  belong  to  the 
descendants  of  ^'^  KI  and   thus  be  a  son  of  **'"^'EN-KI.i 

Other  attributes  of  Nina  are  :  en-me-li-azag^  or  en-me-li  dingir- 
ri-ne;3  nin-in-dub-ba.*  "^'"^''Nina  calls  ^'''^'' Nin-Gir-su  *'my  brother,"* 
and  '^'"fi^'^Nidaba  ''my  sister."«  **'"^''Nina  is  also  called  the  NIN  of 
'*'"s^'Ud-ma-Nina-'''-shurit-ta.'  It  may  not  be  impossible  that  this 
dingrirUd-ma-Nina-'^'-shurit-ta  be  a  fourth  name  of  her  husband^  **''^' 
Nin-dar-a, 

The  firstborn  of  Nina  was  '''"^'Nin-Mar-'^'.^ 
To  KPs  line  belongs,  no  doubt  also  *^'"^' Gal-dim -zu-ab.^o 
From  Old  Babylonian  inscriptions  we  cannot  as  yet  make  out 
the  father  or  the  mother  of  EN-KI  himself,  but  a  later  text  tells  us 
that  *"^^^^GUR  was  the  mother  of  god  Ea.""     Who  or  what  is 
this-^'^^'GUR? 


'  It  should  be  observed  here,  that  the  husband  of  a  wife  is  at  the  same  time 
alxvays  her  brother!  Comp.  *^'"8irEN-LiL  and  dinfirga-u.  See  also . Winckler, 
M.  V.  A.  G.  1901,  4,  p.  14  ff. 

^Gudea.  Cyl.  A.  II.  i  III.  16.  For  en-me-li  to  be  pronounced  enshi,  see  Br. 
2918.  Br.  Mus.  82-8-16,  I  (=A.  W.  p.  54  f.  =  Hom.  S.  L.  p.  97)  1.  21.  Thureau- 
Dangin  translates  it  by  "divineresse."  Songe  de  Goud6a,  p.  116. 

'Gudea,  Cyl.  A.  II.  16,  IV.  12. 

*  "Mistress  of  tablet  writing,"  Gudea.  Statue  B.  VIII.  53.     E.  B.  H.  193. 

*Shesh-mu  ^^'''^''^ Nin-Gir-su,  Gudea,  Cyl.  A.  V.  17,  comp.  with  1.  11.  See  also 
Gudea,  Statue  D.  IV.  2-3  (K.  B.  IIP.  p.  52),  where  Nini  and  Nin-Gir-su  are 
coupled  together. 

®  Gudea,  Cyl.  A.  V.  25  :  nin  (notice  the  sign  for  nin)-mu  '^'''e'' Nidaba. 

'Gudea,  Cyl.  A.  II.  i,  17,  III.  27.  IV.  5  (E  Kisal  d'°&J'Ud-ma-Nini-''«.shurit-ta). 
Nin  here s=  sister ?  (notice  the  sign!).  E.  B.  H.  p.  193  (where  instead  of  tag=: 
shurit  must  be  read  on  account  of  the  prolongation  syllable.  For  TAG  =  shurit 
see  S*'  292). 

*In  this  case  NIN  =  "  Mrs."  or  "wife  of";  see  above,  p.  16.  The  temple 
of  Nin^  was  called  E-Ud-raa-Ninfi-''' -shurit  and  was  situated  in  Ninft-''',  a  suburb 
of  Shirpurla-Lagash,  E.  B.  H.  p.  193. 

.•Ur-Ba-u  V.  10  (K.  B.  IIP.  p.  24) :  d''»8^'Nin-Mar-»''  sal-shag-ga  dumu-sag 
d>aei»Nina,  i.  e.,  Nin-Mar-'''  (the  mistress  of  Mar,  a  city),  the  gracious  lady,  the 
firstborn  of  Nini.     See  also  Gudea,  Statue  B.  IX.  x  (K.  B.  IIP.  p.  46). 

»0E.  B.  H.  p.  106. 

"IV.  R.  I,  col.  II.  36,  The  god  Ea  is  "EN-KI."  The  sign  GUR  18  =  NX- 
GIN  +  inserted  GHAL,  the  same  as  in  Ur-Gur,  king  of  Ur,  For  the  reading  EN- 
GUR  instead  of  GUR  see  above,  p.  x6,  note  4 


28  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

Hommeli  identified  ^'"«^'GUR  with  '*'«e''Ba-u.  He  was  able  to 
adduce  seven  ** reasons"  for  his  supposition.  The  very  fact  that 
he  brought  in  just  seven  ** reasons'*  was  at  once  a  bad  omen.  He 
introduces  his  seven  reasons  thus  (p.  220): 

"Da  Bel,  wie  der  Eigenname  2E-KUR-dumu--nunna  (d.  i.,  Igur  Sohn  Nunna's) 
beweist,  als  Sohn  des  Himraelsoceans  von  den  Babyloniern  aufgefasst  wurde  (vgl. 
auch  noch  Ursp.,  S.  37,  Z.  6  v.  u.  Bel  mir  rishtfi  sharai),  so  ist  es  nach  der  stereo- 
typen  Folge  Anu,  Bel,  Ea,  mchr  als  zuahrschrinlich,  dass  sie  auch  den  Ea  als 
Sohn  Bel's  hetrachteten'^  und  dass  in  der  Reihe  Anum  (Nun,  anna),  Bel  (Gun- 
lilla),  Ea  (Gun-kia  oder  Dugga),  Merodacb,  die  alteste  babylonische  GSttergenca- 
logie  vorliegt." 

His  argument  about  the  ^onship  of  Ea,  then,  is  this:  **On 
account  of  the  stereotyped  sequence  Anu,  Bel,  Ea,  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  Ea  was  the  son  of  Bel !"  Upon  this  pillar  of  truth, 
this  unquestionable  fact  of  proof,  his  whole  argument  is  built  up. 
But  let  us  go  on.     He  says : 

"Anum  hat  keine  Gemahlin das  Fern.  Anatu  der  lexicalischen  Listen  (ist) 

erst  eine  spatere  Abstraction,  welche  in  den  alten  bilinguen  Texten  wie  in  den  In- 
schriften  von  Tello  noch  nirgends  vorkommt." 

This,  I  suppose,  he  probably  will  no  longer  maintain  now,  be- 
cause the  **An-nat"  of  Annu-banini  will  be  known  to  him.  Annu- 
banini  lived  even  before  Sargon  I.,  i.  e. ,  before  3800  B.  C, — hence 
**  An-nat"  or  the  wife  of  Anu  was  known  as  early  as  that.  He  then 
speaks  of  the  wives  of  Enlil  and  enumerates  the  Nin-lilla  and  the 
Nin-ghar-sagga  and  says : 

"Ein  anderer  (viz.,  name  of  the  wives  of  Enlil)  war  **""eirGUR,*  eine  ausge- 
sprochene  Hiramelsoceansgottin,  welche  in  den  bilinguen  Texten  als  "Mutter  des 
Gottes  Ea"  {also  demnach  als  Gemahltyi  des  Voters  des  Ea,  eben  des  Bel)^  bc- 
zeichnet  wird  (4  R.  i.  36  b)." 

Because  Ea  was  declared  on  account  of  the  stereotyped  sequence: 
Anu  Bel  Ea,  to  be  the  son  of  Bel,   and  because  ''•"s^'GUR  is  the 

,  *  "  Die  Identitat  der  Sltesten  babylonischen  und  Sgyptischen  Gdttergenealogie 
und  der  babylonische  Ursprung  der  Sgyptischen  Kultur,  in  Transactions  of  the 
International  Congress  of  Orientalists.'''  Von  Prof.  Dr.  Fritz  Hommel.  Lon- 
don, 1893. 

^  Given  in  cuneiform  signs.  '  Italics  are  mine. 

'  Given  in  cuneiform  signs.  ^  Italics  are  mine. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  29 

mother  of  Ea,  hence  he  follows  •*'"^'GUR  must  be  also  the  wife  of 
Bel !  This  argument,  then,  is  again  built  upon  the  sequence  merely. 
He  goes  on : 

"AlsGottin  aber^cA^m/^  «*•"£'' GUR*    nicht  die  Aussprache  OUR  gehabt  zu 

haben,  sondern  Ba'u das  geht  aus  folgenden Griinden  hervor  : 

"I.  Die  Gottin  Ba-u  heisst  in  den  Gudea-Inschriften  stets  'Tochter  des 
Hiramels,'  ist  also  eine  Schwester,  resp.  (was  in  der  babylonischen  Mytho- 
logie  oft  dasselbe  ist)  Gemahlln  des  Gottes  Bel,  demnach  identisch  mit 
der  Gottin  Nin-lilla  oder  der  ^  **'"&'' GUR.^  welcbeletztere  ja  Mutter  des 
Gottes  Ea  beisst:*' 

Ba-u  is  the  wife  of  Bel,  hence  the  same  as  Nin-lil  or  '^'"^'GUR, 
who  is  the  mother  Ea.  Hommel  wishes  to  prove  that  Ba-u  = '*'"?*' 
GUR,  but  takes  it  for  granted  that  '^'''^•'GUR  is  =  Nin-lil,  without 
any  arguments  of  his, — a  fair  exhibition  of  Hommel's  argumenta- 
tion !     He  continues: 

"2.  In  einer  Zauberformel  (4  R.  29,  Np.  4)  ist  die  »din«nrGUR»  die  Helferin 

der  Kranken,  besonders  solcher  an  Augenweh  leidenden in  einem  Shnlichen 

Text,  K  23784-224,  wird  sie  unmittelbar  nach  der  Gottin  Nin-agha-kuddu 

(der  Scbwester  Ea's)  erwahnt  als  'Herrin  der  reinen  GewSsser,'  nin  a-gub-ba  fl-la. 
Auch  die  Ba-u  wird  (in  H.,  K.  T.  11.  xxvi)  gegen  Kopf-,  Herz-,  und  Augenweh  zu- 
gleich  mit  Nin-agha-kuddu  und  Gula  angerufen." 

dingfirQUR  aud  Ba-u  are  invoked  in  case  of  sickness  ;  especially 
when  the  eyes  are  diseased,  twice  they  are  coupled  together  with 
Nin-agha-kuddu, — hence  '''"^'' GUR  =  Ba-u, — a  strong  argument, 
indeed  !  For  the  same  reason  Hommel  might  have  argued  that  Gu- 
la, a  later  name  for  Ba-u,  is  =  Nin-agha-kuddu  = '*'°^' GUR, — for 
he  might  have  substituted  for  Ba-u  the  Gu-la  !  By  such  argumen- 
tations we  can  prove  nothings  absolutely  nothing,  and  everything  I 

"3.  Die '<^'"f'' GUR Mragt  den  Beinamen 'rait  reinen  (azagga)Handen';  die 
speciell  der  Ba-u  heilige  Stadt  ist  URU*-azagga,  d.  i.,  'reine  Stadf  (wol 
gleich  Nipur)." 
Because  the  word  **azagga,  pure,"  occurs  in  connection  with 
"hands"  in  case  of  *""«?*' GUR  and  in  connection  with   URU  or 
"city"  in  case  of  Ba-u,— hence  **'"«f'' GUR  =  Ba-u  !     Further  com- 
ment is  unnecessary.     Uru-azagga  is  not  Nippur,  but  a  suburb  of 
Shirpurla. 

1  Given  in  cuneiform  tignt. 


3©  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  1. 

"4.  Das  Ideogramm  GUR*  wird  von  den  babylonischen  Gelebrten  aus- 
driicklich  als  'Hiramel'  (ziku  =  shamu)  erklart  (2  R.  50.  27),  und  die  Ban 
beisst  stets  (siehe  schon  oben  unter  No.  1)  'Tocbter  des  Himmels.'  " 

The  sign  GUR  (notice,  not  '^'''^''GUR)  is  =  heaven,  Ba-u  is  = 
daughter  of  heaven,  hence  GUR  =  Ba-u  or  heaven  =  daughter  of 
heaven  !  And  I  may  add  **'"^'  GUR  =  ^  of  heaven  =  heaven  = 
daughter  of  heaven,  one  follows  from  the  other !  The  heaven  be- 
comes his  own  daughter !     Splendid  argumentation  ! 

"5.  Wie  es  einen  Gott  '  ^'^^^EN-GUR^  (=Ea,  dann  als  Sohn  der  ^  ^''^ei' 
GUR,*  nrspr.  aber  wol  =  Bel)  gibt  (Jens.  Kosmol.,  S.  245),  so  gab  es  aucb 
einen  Gott  '«^'nsirEX*-Ba-u  [here  Hommel  refers  to  a  note  :  vg|.  aucb  3  R. 

67.  57 »*ii"e^'GUR'-ra.  NIN-*  GUR*-ra,   woraus  zngleicb  hervorgeht. 

dass  man  spater  allerdings  '^'"ff^'GUR*  Gurra  las,  was  aber  naturlich  fiir 
die  alte  Zeit  nichts  beweist]  Urspr.,  S.  19,  Anm.  1).     Wie  es  einen  alt- 

babyloniscben  Konigsnamen  Ur-*  <^'ne''GUR  *  gab, so  gab  es  aucb. . . . 

einen  Ur-*^''^'*Ba-u." 

The  nonsense  that  follows  is  too  great  to  be  reproduced  here, 
and  has,  I  suppose,  been  given  up  by  Hommel  himself.  His  argu- 
ment is  this:  GUR  =  Ba-u  (which  he  wants  to  prove,  mark  ye  !), 
**Gleiches  zu  Gleichem  zugesetzt  giebt  Gleiches,  und  Gleiches  von 
Gleichem  abgezogen  giebt  Gleiches."  If  we  add  to  GUR  and  Ba-u 
a  dingirEN  we  get  the  same,  and  if  we  abstract  from  <*»"g»'^EN-GUR 
and  ^»=K'f  EN-Ba-u,  a  dinsirEN  we  get  again  the  same — but  this  pre- 
supposes that  GUR  IS  already  =  Ba-u,  which  Hommel  wishes  to 
prove  by  this  No.  5  ! 

"6.  *  <J''»ff»'GUR  *  ist  bei  den  Aegyptem  die  Morgendammerong  (siehe  unten) 
wie  bei  den  Babyloniem  die  Bau-n  (3  R.  55,  49b)." 

Here  Hommel  takes  something  as  proven,  which  he  has  not 
yet  proved ! 

"7.  Endlich  wird  die  Gottin  *  «*•«»«"  GUR  * in  spSterer  Zeit  in  ganz  gleicher 

Weise  zur  Gemahlin  Nirgal's  (4  R.  3|,  col.  3,  30;  vgl.  2.  46,  die  Gula 
als  Gemahlin  Nindar's)  wie  andererseits  .  .  .  die  Ba-u,  zur  Gemablin  des 
Ningirsu  (=Nirgal)  wird  (Statue  G.  2.  6).  wahrend  docb  sonst  die  G5ttin 
idineirNini*  (Gbanna)  die  Schwester  (Gudea,  Cyl.  A.  5.  17)  und  Gemahlin 
des  Ningirsu-Nirgal  ist." 

*  Given  in  cuneiform  signs. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  3I 

Hommel  presupposes  or  takes  for  granted  without  any  further 
argument  of  his  that  Ningirsu  is  =Nirgal.  He  first  must  prove 
this,  then  we  shall  want  to  answer  him.  Jensen,  e.  g.,  takes  Nin- 
girsu to  be  =  Ninib,  see  K.  B.  IIP,  p.  23,  note  *t-  We  do  not 
know  as  yet  who  this  Ningirsu  is  !     But  see  below  ! 

The  best,  however,  follows: 

"Aus  all  diesen  Anfuhrungen,"  says  Hommel,  *' geht  Jtervor,"^  dass=***«8v 
GUR2  and  ^'"^''^ga-u  reine  Synonyma^  sind,  ganz  dieselbe  GiUtin  von  Haus  aus 
bezcichyien}  und  ddiSS  hochst  zvaJirscheiulzch^  auch  die  gewohnliche  Ausspracbe 
YQjj  2dinprQUR2  Ba'u  War,  wahrend  die  andere  Ausspracbe  gur  offenbar  nurdem 
unpersonific.irten  mythologischen  Begrifif  GUR^  (ohne  Gottheitsdeterminativ)  eig- 
nete.  Ich  babe  dies  deshalb  so  ausfiihrlicb  und  eingebend  bier  BEWIESEN,* 
weil  in  einem  viel  citirten  Bucbe  die  betrefifende  Identificaticn  eine  '  aucb  jeglicher 
Begrundung  entbebrende'  genannt  worden  ist  (Jensen,  Kosmologie,  S.  245)." 

And  I  have  taken  this  trouble  to  present  to  the  public  the 
splendid  proofs  of  Professor  Hommel,  to  show  what  nonsense  they 
are.  I  do  not  possess  Jensen's  Kosmologicy  nor  is  it  accessible  to 
me,  hence  do  not  know  what  arguments  Jensen  adduces  to  disprove 
Hommel.  But  arguments  are  not  necessary  at  all  to  disprove  the 
above-^w^n  ** reasons*' ;  every  man  with  a  little  common  sense  will 
see  instantly  that  they  are  nonsensical.    To  quote  Hommel'  again : 

"Wer  so  einen  Unsinn  denken,  scbreiben  und  scbliesslich  drucken  lassen 
kann,  der  bat  iiberbaupt  den  Ansprucb  ernst  genommen  zu  werden  verwirkt." 

All  seven  ** reasons"  of  Hommel  are  built  upon  the  sequence 
of  Anu,  Bel,  Ea,  which  suffices  to  prove  for  him  that  Ea  was  the 
son  0/ Bel,  and'  because  Ea  was  also  the  son  of  <J«ngirQUR  he  fol- 
lows, that  <^«ng»rGUR  must  have  been  the  wife  of  Bel,  and  thus  the 
same  as  ^»°8>r  Ba-u  ! 

The  only  passage  in  the  old  Babylonian  inscriptions,  where 
the  sequence  Anu,  Bel,  Ea  may  be  found  is  that  of  Gudea,  Statue 
B.  Col.  VIII.  45  ff.:  An-e  d'°fi"En-lil-li,  d'^e'r  Nin-char-sag  dingirEN- 
KL;  And  here  Ea  or  ^^'^R^^EN-KI  is  divided  from  Bel  or  ^''^^"Bn-VA 
by  the  wife  of  the  latter  !     In  all  the  other  oldest  inscriptions  the 

*  Italics  and  capitals  are  mine.  '  Given  in  cuneiform  signs. 

•Hommel,  JDfe  Sudarabisclun  Alterthiimer  des  Wiener  Jlofmuseums,  p.  12 
==  AufsHtze  und  Abhandlungen,  II.  p.  140. 


32  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

sequence  of  the  gods  seems  to  be  without  any  special  order,  as  one 
can  easily  convince  himself,  by  examining  the  inscriptions  with 
regard  to  this  point.  Furthermore  the  celebrated  trilingual  list  of 
gods,^  written  in  EME-SAL,  Sumerian,  and  Semitic  Babylonian, 
does  NOT  give  the  names  of  the  gods  in  the  sequence  An,  Bel,  Ea — 
which  it  would  have  undoubtedly  done,  if  Ea  had  been  the  son  of 
Bel,  as  Hommel  supposes — but  in  the  order  Anu,^  Ea,  Bel.  The 
same  arrangement,  viz.:  Anu,  Ea,  Bel  is  found  again  in  IV.  R.  i, 
6i^  ff.  Hence,  the  sequence  Anu,  Bel,  Ea  would  not  prove  anj^- 
thing  at  all.  And  if  it  does  not,  then  is  Hommel's  statement,  to 
saj^  the  least,  nonsense,  that  it  is  **nach  der  stereotypen  Folge 
Anu,  Bel,  Ea,  inehr  ah  luahrscJuinlich,  dass  sie  (the  Babylonians) 
auch  den  Ea  als  Sohn  Bel's  betrachteten  und  dass  in  der  Reihe 
Anum,  Bel,  Ea,  Merodach,  die  alteste  babylonische  GSttergenea- 
logie  vorliegt.*'  And  if  the  sequence  Anu,  Bel,  Ea  does  not  prove 
anything,  then  it  also  follows  that  ^'^k'^quR  is  not  proven  to  be 
the  wife  of  Bel  or  =  Ba-u!  The  other  seven  arguments  or  **  rea- 
sons" (Grunde)  of  Hommel  are  so  foolish  as  to  require  no  further 
refutation. 

But  who  then  was  <J»°8'»^GUR?  In  order  to  answer  this  ques- 
tion it  is  necessary  to  inquire  into  the  meaning  of  god  AN  and 
god  KI ! 

The  sign  AN  is  translated  in  Semitic  Babylonian  generally  by 
shamu,  i.  e.,  ** heaven,"  and  the  sign  KI  generally  by  irtsitu,  i.  e., 
** earth."  Both  signs  occur  very  often  together  in  the  attributes  of 
En-lil  (lugal-an-ki')  and  Nin-char-sag  (nin-an-ki^),  where  they  no 
doubt  stand  for  ** heaven  and  earth."  That  the  original  meaning 
of  AN  was  not  so  much  "heaven"  and  that  of  KI  not  so  much 
** earth"  is  evident  from  the  following  considerations : 


'  II.  R.  59  (see  Hommel,  S.  L.  p.  46). 

2  Anu  is  called  in  the  EME-SAL  column  =  dim-me-ir ;  in  the  Sumerian  :  AN ; 
and  in  the  Semitic  :  i[-lum],  i.  e..  the  god  Kaf  t^ox^rv.  From  this  it  would  follow 
that  the  writing  AN-E  might  also  be  read  dingir-e,  and  that  of  AN-tum  =  il-tum, 
and  lastly  that  of  NI-NI-tum  =i-ri-tum,  but  in  every  case  it  would  signify  either 
the  "  god  "  or  the  "godd^"  luvf  t^oxnv,  i.  e.,  Anu  and  his  wife  Annat. 

s  See  above,  p.  19,  4.  5. 6. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  33 

(i)    "Heaven"  in  Sumerian  means  GISH  and  in  EME-SAL: 


ma 


(2)  In  the  expression  AN-ta=:elish  and  Kl-ta  =  shaplish,  the 
AN  stands  simply  for  **that  which  is  above"  and  the  KI  for  **that 
which  is  below."  Thus  it  happened  that  Jensen  explained  the 
name  ^''°R>'"EN-KI  by  **Herr,  dessen  was  unten  ist"  =  Ea.*  If  this 
explanation  be  correct,  it  would  follow  from  the  analogy  of  the  case 
that  the  name  AN  or  EN-AN^  would  have  to  be  translated  by  **he 
who  is  above"  or  by  **lord  of  that  which  is  above." 

This  idea  of  ** being  above"  and  "being  below"  is  no  doubt 
the  original  one,  and  because  "that  which  is  above"  was  consid- 
ered to  be  the  heaven  thus  it  came  in  course  of  time  that  AN  stood 
for  heaven,  and  KI  "being  that  which  is  below"  came  to  mean 
"earth." 

3.  En-lil,  we  have  seen,  was  in  later  inscriptions  also  called 
E-KUR-dumu-nunna,  i.  e.,  E-KUR,*  the  son  of  Nunna.  If  this 
be  true,  then  AN,  the  father  of  Bel  (see  above:  Bel  mar  reshtii 
shame)  must  also  have  been,  or  been  called,  a  NUN  ! 

4.  But  ^^'^B'^^EN-KI  or  Mr.  KI  was  also  called  NUN  as  is  ap- 
parent from  the  name  of  his  wife  <*^°k'^ Dam-gal-nun-na,  "the  great 
wife  of  NUN."  What  this  NUN  means  we  know  ;  it  is  the  zu-ab 
or  apsu,  the  ocean. 

Thus  we  see  instantly  that  AN  was  "the  upper  ocean"  and 
KI  the  "lower  ocean,"  or  ^^the  heavenly  ocean**  and  **the  terrestrial 
ocean,''  or  as  the  Bible  calls  it,  "the  waters  above  the  firmament" 
and  "the  waters  below  the  firmament."  This  specific  meaning  of 
god  AN  and  god  KI  has  been  recognised  already  by  other  scholars, 
even  by  Hommel,  although  I  do  not  know  what  arguments  he 
employed.       - 

Having  thus  established  the  original  meaning  of  the  words  AN 
and  KI  respectively,  we  may  turn  to  the  relationship  of  AN  and 


1  Trilingual  list  of  gods.  II.  R.  59,  col.  II.  1.  47. 

«K.  B.  IIP.  p.  21,  notcf. 

*Comp.  the  proper  name  EN-AN-NA-tum  and  see  above,  p.  24,  6. 

*  E-KUR  is  originally  the  name  of  the  temple  of  En-lil  at  Nippur. 


34  THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

KI,  i.  e.,  inquire  whether  god  KI  was  the  son  of  En-lil  and  thus 
the  grandson  of  ^°^  AN,  or  whether  he  was  something  else. 

In  Assyrian  we  have  a  word  achu  which  means  "brother"  and 
also  **side.'*  If  this  very  same  word  is  written  achu  (contracted  out 
of  achaiu)  it  means  ** enemy."  Both  words  no  doubt  go  back  to  the 
same  root.  But  how  then  could  the  word  achu  possibly  get  the 
meaning  "enemy"  and  be  written  achu?     My  explanation  is  this: 

Achu,  or  achaiu,  literally  means  :  "he  who  or  that  which  belongs 
to  the  brother,"  comp.  Nippuru  out  of  Nippuraiu,  "he  who  belongs 
to  Nippur,"  i.  e.,  "a  Nippurian."  But  "a  brother"  is  in  every 
case  "the  other,"  i.  e.,  the  "one  who  is  not  the  cgOy^*  "who  is  in 
opposition  to  the  ego,"  "who  is  opposed  to  the  ego,"  and  the  one 
that  is  opposed  to  my  ego  is  "my  brother"  and  "my  enemy  !"  If 
a  person  or  a  god  is  called  "AN,"  then  he  who  is  his  achu  had  to 
be  called  "KI"  and  as  such  he  is  "/«  opposition  to"  (an  achu!)  to 
the  AN.  If  AN  means  the  '^heavenly  ocean"  and  KI  the  ^* terres- 
trial ocean,"  we  have  here  an  achu  in  so  far  as  they  are  both  an 
ocean,  hence  also  of  the  same  stock  or  parents^  but  also  an  achu  in 
so  far  as  the  KI  is  opposed  to  the  AN,  "the  terrestrial  ocean"  to 
"the  heavenly  ocean."  Comp.  here  also  AN-SAR  and  KI-SAR;  as 
SAR  they  are  achu,  as  AN  and  KI  they  are  achu  !  ^ 

And  now,  if  ^ingirQUR  is  called  the  mother  of  god  Ea  or  En- 
ki,  it  follows,  because  EN-KI  is  the  achu  and  achu  of  god  AN,  that 
dingirGUR /««j/  be  the  mother  ofK°<*AN  too.  AN  and  KI  being 
the  "heavenly  and  the  terrestrial  ocean,"  ^^^s^'^GUR  can  only  be 
the  "primeval  ocean."  And  it  is  more  than  mere  accident  that  we 
should  have  handed  down  to  us  the  following  three  writings  of  this 


*  See  also  Winckler,  who  has  partly  anticipated  me  here, — although  his  in- 
vestigations are  in  quite  another  field, — who  says  in  M.  V.  A.  G.  1901,  4,  part  i, 
p.  15.  note  I.  which  has  just  come  to  hand:  "  Mythologisch — und  damit  im  Za- 
sammenhang  der  ganzen  Weltauffassung— erscheint  das  Brudermotiv — wie  alia — 
also  in  den  zwei  Gegensatzen,  denn  jedes  Ding  schlagt  schliesslich  in  sein  Gegen- 
theil  um,  wie  es  der  Kreislauf  der  Natur  vorschreibt  und  bedingt.  Wir  haben 
die  unzertrennlichen  und  doch  getrennten  Brilder :  Dioskuren,  Mond  und  Sonne 
=  Nacht  und  Tag  =  Licht  und  Finsterniss  =  Winter  und  Sommer,  die  beiden  Son- 
ncn — und  Naturhalften.  Diese  sind  die /«nt//?V^ew  Briider,  deren  einer  den  an- 
deren  t&tet :  Eteokles  und  Polyneikes,  Baldr-H5dur  (dessen  Blindheit  Mondmoixy 
itt.) 


THE  CREATION-STORV  OF  GENESIS  I.  35 

deity:  <J'°gi'^GUR,  ^'"R'^EN-GUR,  <*ing'»^NIN-GUR.  The  last  two 
stand  for  Mr.  and  Mrs.  GUR,  L  e.,  for  apsu  and  tiamat,  for  cwi 
and  c^)5,  or  for  r^tn  and  D^"t:'X  nn  respectively.  ^ingirGUR  on  the 
other  hand  signifies  only  «*"*  GUR,  without  laying  special  emphasis 
upon  the  male  or  female  part,  or  /lusdatid  2Lnd  wife,  <*i°g»*^GUR  thus 
becomes  *  ^  the  primeval  oceatty  kut  c^oxijft,"  and  is  as  such  c/der  than 
NIN-GUR  or  EN-GUR.  This  also  proves  that  we  had  originally 
only  a  god  KI,^ — and  because  the  heavenly  is  only  a  reflex  of  the 
earthly,  this  god  KI  became  a  wife :  a  NIN-KI,  **Mrs.  KI " ;  and 
in  order  to  distinguish  the  wife  from  the  husband,  or  better,  in 
order  to  avoid  misunderstanding,  the  husband  was  called  EN-KI, 


Mr.  KI ;  for  <*»°k''"  KI  alone,  if  used  also  of  Mr.  KI,  would  leave  it 
doubtful  whether  eod  KI  as  a  whole — male  and  female— were  meant, 
or  whether  it  stood  for  EN-KI  only. 

Furthermore,  if  dingiroUR  (notice  not  ^^^k'^  NIN-GUR,  as  we 
might  expect)  is  called  the  mother  of  EN-KI,  we  may  see  in  this  a 
striking  parallel  to  the  Babylonian  creation  story  as  well  as  to  the 
Biblical, — according  to  both  the  heavenly  and  terrestrial  ocean 
take  their  origin  from  the  tiamat  or  tehom,  i.  e.,  the  descent  was 
reckoned  through  the  mother!* 

Tehom  and  tiamat  even  in  later  times  are  used  for  ** ocean*' 
without  any  special  reference  to  a  mythological  being  as  con- 
sisting of  two  genders:  the  male  and  female  gender;  so  GUR 
may  have  been  primarily  the  ocean  and  only  in  later  times  acquired 
this  mythological  conception  of  being  male  and  female,  thus  able 
to  generate  and  perpetuate  itself.  However  this  may  have  been, 
all  suggestions  that  might  be  made  here  are  at  the  very  best  only 
guesses.  May  it  suffice  therefore  to  have  shown  that  <*i'»i»'GUR 
was  the  primeval  ocean  who  brought  forth  by  process  of  generation 
— notice  generation — two  sons  :  AN  and  KI,  who  later  on  were  to- 
gether with  GUR  thought  to  be  male  and  female,  and  thus  able  to 
perpetuate  their  own  lines  respectively.  Having  made  this  prob- 
able, we  can  now  explain  the  succession :  Anu,  Bel,  Ea  as  well  as 
Anu,  Ea,  Bel.     In  this  latter  sequence  the  two  brothers  are  men- 

*  See  above  pp.  13,  9 ;  15  ff.  •  *See  above  p,  9. 


36  THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

tioned  first,  then  follows  Bel  as  the  son  of  Anu.  In  the  former 
sequence  we  have  the  father  Anu  together  with  his  son  Bel,  and 
Ea  is  the  *am,  the  father's  brother ,  who  plays  such  an  important  role 
in  old  Arabic  inscriptions  that  even  the  word  itself  became  a  god, 
— the  god  *Am.*  Anu,  Bel,  Ea,  is  thus  proven  to  be  what  the 
Arabs  call  a  raht,  i.  e.,  a  community  consisting  of  a  head  or  *'abu" 
=  Anu,  of  an  *am=rEa,  and  of  a  nephew  =  Bel,*  who  form  the 
first  triad  in  the  Babylonian  pantheon  as  well  as  in  the  Assyrian, 
which  triad,  as  we  have  seen,  goes  back  to  the  Sumerian  concep- 
tion of  the  theogony  and  cosmogony. 

As  AN,  originally  the  '* heavenly  ocean,"  became  in  later  times 
the  shamu  or  "heaven,"  thus  KI,  originally  the  ** terrestrial  ocean" 
became  later  on  the  irtsitu  or  ** earth."  We  would  expect  that  AN 
and  KI  became  in  consequence  of  this  also  the  **god  ot  heaven" 
and  **the  god  of  earth"  respectively.  But  this  is  not  the  case. 
The  **god  of  heaven  and  earth  "  was  Bel,  for  he  is  repeatedly  called 
the  '*lugal-an-ki,  ''the  king  of  heaven  and  earth."  ''Heaven  and 
earth"  were  thus  considered  to  be  closely  connected,  yes,  to  be 
one,  and  what  this  one  thing  was  called,  we  shall  see,  when  we 
come  to  speak  of  ^^°^"  En-lil. 

And  if  "heaven  and  earth"  were  considered  to  be  one,  it  is,  of 
course,  natural,  that  we  should  not  find  a  god  iii  this  Sumerian 
theogony  who  is  called  LUGAL-KI,  shar  irtsiti  "  the  king  of  the 
earth."  Hence,  there  does  not  seem  to  have  existed  at  the  time  of 
the  Sumerians  a  so-called  "ba'al  of  the  soil,"  who  plays  such  an 
important  role  among  the  Semitic  peoples. 

The  god  KI  had  sons  and  daughters,  all  of  whom  we  have 
met  already  above.  It  only  remains  here  to  explain  their  names. 
The  sign  by  which  Nina  is  expressed  is  composed  of  ESH  or  AB  = 
"abode,"  with  inserted  CHA  or  "fish."  Signs,  when  inserted  into 
another  sign,  may  be  either  an  indicator  of  the  pronunciation  or  an 
indicator  of  the  sense.     The   latter  I  take  to  be  the  case  here. 

*  See  Hommel,  Die  sUdarabischen  Alterthiimer  des  Wiener  Hof  museums, 
MQncben,  1899,  p.  28  ff. 

*  See  also  Proksch,  Die  Blutrache  bet  den  alien  Arabern,  p.  23,  and  Winck- 
ler,  Af.  V.  A.  C,  190X,  4.  p.  16. 


THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  37 

The  sign  **fish  "  may  either  stand  for  **fish  "  itself,  or  for  "  plenty." 
Nina  then  would  be  either  a  fishgoddess,  or  a  goddess  of  plenty. 
The  goddess  Nidaba^  **was  the  goddess  of  grain,"  as  even  the 
Ideogram  indicates  it.'  '^'^R^'^Dumu-zi  because  =  ""Du-'-u-zu,  and 
because  to  him  was  dedicated  originally  the  sixth  and  in  later  times 
the  fourth  month  called  SHU-KUL-NA  or  ^* month  of  sowing" 
must  have  been  **the  god  of  verdure."' 

According  to  the  analogy  we  should  expect  for  Nina's  husband 
also  some  such  signification  as  '*  verdure,"  or  ** fishes,"  or  "plenty," 
or  "grain  ;  "  this  however  cannot  be  made  out  as  5^et.  It  may  not 
be  impossible  that  the  name  <*»°8>r  Nin-dub,  because  dub  means 
"clay,"  then  "clay  tablet,"  may  make  that  god  to  have  been  orig- 
inally "the  god  of  the  clayground."  However  this  may  have  been, 
the  significations  of  the  names  of  Nina,  Dumu-zi,  Nidaba,  sufiSce  to 
show  us  that  we  have  to  see  in  them  the  gods  of  either  "what  the 
earth  produces"  or  "what  the  sea  produces."  If  this  be  true  then 
it  follows  that  the  <J»°g»''EN-KI,  the  "terrestrial  ocean,"  was  thought 
to  contain  the  earth  also,  i.  e.,  he  was  "the  waters  which  contained 
the  dry  ground,"  or  else  he  could  not  have  produced  sons  or 
daughters  who  are  the  gods  of  "the  produce  of  the  earth" !  As 
already  said  above,  the  Sumerians  do  not  seem  to  have  had  "a 
god  of  the  dry  land  or  soil  "icar*  c^ox^v" 

What  may  possibly  be  the  reason  for  this  phenomenon?  We 
know  from  the  Gilgamesh  epic — and  our  present  investigation  con- 
firms it,  as  we  shall  see — that  Eridu  or  NUN-*"*,  the  city  of  Ea  or 
EN-KI  was  one  of  the  oldest  cities  of  Babylonia,  from  which  prac- 
tically the  whole  of  the  specific  Babylonian  religion  took  its  origin. 
Eridu,  when  the  Gilgamesh  epic  was  written,  was  a  seaport  town 
on  the  Persian  Gulf,  while  to-day  it  is  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles 


\For  references  see  £.  B.  H.  Index,  gods,  p.  444,  sab.  N. 

*  See  Br.  7453,  and  comp.  Trilingual  list  of  gods,  2  R.  59,  I.  24,  where  she  it 
called  the  "wife  of  '*'°P'Lugal-ki-sa(di)-a." 

'In  the  sixth  month  the  festival  of  "the  dying  of  the  verdure,"  while  in  the 
fourth  month  that  of  "the  new  life  of  the  verdure"  was  celebrated.  The  former 
was  the  festival  of  the  wailing  for  Tammuz,  the  latter  that  of  his  resurrection. 
See  also  Dr.  Carus,  The  Afontst,  July,  1901,  pp.  528  ff. 


38  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

from  the  coast  line.  Here  the  Sumerians  of  old  saw  how  new 
earth  or  dry  land  was  added  year  by  year  to  the  already  existing 
dr}'  ground.  Hence  it  was  quite  natural  for  them  to  think  that 
**the  earth  was  contained  in  the  terrestrial  ocean."  But  water  is 
also  necessary  for  vegetation  !  Hence  also,  vegetation,  verdure  of 
the  dry  ground,  were  made  to  be  children  of  <*»°8»rEN-KI.  In  the 
ocean  are  also  fishes,  etc.,  and  thus  Nina  the  fishgoddess  became  of 
necessit}^  his  child.  Thus  we  would  expect  **the  ba*al  of  the  soil" 
to  be  a  son  of  EN-KI.  It  may  ver}^  well  be  possible  that  future 
investigations  will  shed  light  upon  this  question.  At  the  present 
it  will  be  best  not  to  put  too  great  an  emphasis  upon  this  omission, 
for  any  of  the  gods  not  yet  identified  may  become  in  future  times 
"a  god  of  the  soil." ^ 

The  firstborn  of  EN-LIL  or  Bel  is  the  god  ZU,  i.  e.,  dingirEN- 
ZU  or  also  called  *^»°g»'^Uru-ki.  This  latter  is  translated  into  the 
Semitic-Babylonian  by  Nannar,*  i.  e.,  **the  luminary."  The  **na-an- 
na-ri  shame-e  u  irtsitim,"  or  *'the  luminary  of  heaven  and  earth,"* 
was  god  Sin.  And  **Sin"  translates  the  Sumerian  EN-ZU.  In 
the  Monolith  Inscription  of  Shalmaneser  II.*  we  have  a  god  called 
**ilu  Na-nir  shame-e  irtsi-tim,"  i.  e.,  "the  god  the  luminary*  of 
heaven  and  earth."  Hence  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  EN-ZU  is 
=  Uru-ki  =  Sin  =  Nannar  =  Moon.  What  the  name  ZU  means 
we  cannot  tell.  It  is  explained  in  the  syllabaries  by  **to  know," 
*'to  be  wise,"  '*to  learn,"  *'to  understand,"  etc.,  etc. 

It  may  be  probable  that  Gudea*  of  old  was  obliged  to  confess 
of  Sin:  <i»°K'fEn-zu  mu-ni  galu-nu-gab-ne  :  **Sin — his  name  no  man 
has  ever  disclosed,  understood,  explained,"  because  he — Sin — 
treading  his  quiet  path  for  all  those  ages  past  acquired  in  course 
of  time  a  wisdom  and  knowledge  so  great  that  they  cannot  be 

'Does  perhaps  the '^'"^''^Dun-gur-(an)  belong  here,  who  is  called  the '*'"f*' En- 
temen-[an]  (E.  B.  H.  p.  ii8,  note  i) ?  The  temen-an,  the  "foundation  of  heaven," 
would  be  the  "earth."  But  a  ba'al  of  the  soil  is  quite  di£ferent  from  a  ba'al  of 
the  earth.     See  however  below  I 

«IV.  R.  9  »-JJa.  «V.  R.  64.  18.  ♦III.  R.  7,  col.  I.  2. 

*  "  Die  g5ttliche  Leucbte,"  or  "  der  g5ttlicbe  Leucbter." 

•Gudea.  Statue  B.  VlII.  49  (K.  B.  IIIi.  p.  46). 


THE  CREATION-STORV  OF  GENESIS  I.  39 

disclosed,  for  he  saw  many  things  which  nobody  else  has  seen  and 
heard  many  things  which  no  man  ever  could  have  heard — in  short 
**Sin  was  the  god  who  not  only  could  not  be  disclosed,  or  under- 
stood, but  who  also  did  not  disclose,  open,  betray  anything  him- 
self." 

This  god  **who  passes  our  understanding"  had  two  children, 
UD  and  <^>oe«r  Innanna.  The  god  UD  "the  bright,  or  shining  one," 
is  called  in  the  oldest  inscriptions,  "the  king  filled  with  splen- 
dor,"^ and  is  identified  in  the  later  inscriptions  with  the  god  Sha- 
mash  or  **the  sun."  His  sister  or  w^ife — for  that  is  the  same  in  the 
oldest  inscriptions* — is  the  **  goddess  of  Innanna."  What  the  In- 
nanna was  we  cannot  tell  as  yet.  She  was  later  on  identified  with 
the  ** evening  star"  as  well  as  with  **the  morning  star,"  the  former 
being  the  precursor  of  the  moon,  the  latter  that  of  the  sun.  As 
"morning  star,"  which  leads  the  king  out  to  battle,  she  was  con- 
sidered in  later  times  to  be  a  male  god,  but  retained  her  feminine 
name  and  was  called  either  Ishtar  or  A-nu-ni-tum  belit  tachazi.' 

This  latter  title  she  had  already  in  the  oldest  inscription,  where 
she  is  called  **nin  me,"*  i.  e.,  mistress  of  battle — henc^  feminine f 
It  may  not  be  impossible  that  even  in  the  oldest  time  ^^^^"  Innanna 
was  assigned  to  both  functions,  viz.,  to  that  of  '*the  evening  star," 
thus  becoming  "the  goddess  of  love,"  and  to  that  of  '*the  morning 
star,"  as  such  being  called  the  mistress  of  battle.  The  Innanna 
then  would  express  the  function  common  to  both :  the  morning  and 
the  evening  star.  This  function  in  every  case  must  be  a  double 
one :  the  morning  star  announces  the  end  of  the  night  but  also  the 
beginning  of  the  day;  the  evening  star  in  like  manner  shows  that 


'See,  e.  g.,  Gudea.  Sutue  B.  VIII.  63  (K.  B.  UV.  p.  46):  lugal-zal-sig-ga.  E. 
B.  H.  p.  y6  et  ^sstm. 

*See  above  Enlil  and  Ba-u— both  "the  firstborn  of  An,"  hence  brother  and 
sist^.  but  also  husband  and  wife. 

'  A  good  example  of  this  may  be  found  in  Nabfl-nfi'id,  Thoncylinder  aos  Sip- 
par,  A.-W.  Keilschrifttexte,  p.  42,  col.  III.  1.  23  ff.,  where  A-nu-ni-tum  is  treated 
both  as  a  masculine  and  a  feminine  deity. 

« Gudea.  Sutue  B.  VIII.  6x  (K.  B.  IIIi.  p,  46). 


40  THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

the  day  is  at  its  close  and  that  the  night  is  beginning.^  The  god 
Nin-Gir-su,  the  city-god  of  Girsu,  whose  real  name  we  do  not  know 
as  yet,  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  son  of  ^^^^"  En-lil,  hence,  a  brother 
of  god  ZU,  i.  e..  Sin  or  the  moon,  hence  also,  the  *=am,  the  '*  father's 
brother"  of  UD. 

Who  is  this  Nin-Gir-su? 

HommeH  identified  him  with  Nergal.  Jensen,'  with  Ninib,  the 
god  of  war.  In  another  place*  he  reaches  the  same  conclusion  by 
the  following  consideration  :  The  temple  which  Ur-Ba-u  and  Gudea 
built  for  Nin-Gir-su  was  called  E-ninnu,  i.  e.,  the  temple  of  the 
number  fifty,  and  ninnu  is  again  ^  Ninib.*  This  E-ninnu  was  also 
called  E  <*'°8irlni-gig-ghu-bar-bar.  From  this  Jensen  concludes  (/.^.): 
<<dingir  iiYi.  etc.  ist  cine  Erweiterung  des  Namens.  Die  Gruppe  ist 
zu  deuten :  (des  Gottes)  welcher  den  finstern  (gig)  Himmel  {im) 
erhellen  (bar-bar)  moge  (ghu),  und  spielt  auf  Ninib  als  die  Fnih- 
sonne  an."  This  explanation  was  also  accepted  by  me  in  my  E. 
B.  H«. 

Thureau-Dangin,^  on  the  other  hand,  separated  the  latter  name 
into  ^''^K''' Im-gig-ghu  and  bar-bar,  i.  e.,  "the  divine  bird  Im-gig" 
and  "bright,"  the  bird  he  identified  with  the  eagle,  the  well-known 
emblem  of  Shir-pur-la — Girsu,  referring  at  the  same  time  to  M. 
Heuzey,  Origines  oricniales^  p.  41,  where  an  imprint  of  a  seal- 
cylinder  is  published  which  is  said  to  contain  a  representation  of 
Nin-Girsu  as  described  by  Gudea  in  his  celebrated  dream.  On 
account  of  the  importance  of  the  passage  in  Gudea's  dream  it  might 
seem  well  to  examine  it  more  closely. 

Gudea  has  a  dream ^  in  which  appears  to  him  a  "man."  The 
description  of  this  "man"  is  given  in  all  its  details.  Gudea  does 
not  know  this  *  *  man  "  who  had  commanded  him  to  build  the  temple 

»  See  the  sign  SUCH  (=  Innanna)  V.  R.  \\,  1.  14.  15,  and  H.  W.  B.  p.  541  sub. 
HDID  IV.  I. 

^Identitat,  etc.,  p.  222.     See  above,  p.  30  snb  7. 

'K.  B.  Ill',  p.  19,  note  ♦*,  where  he  quotes  II.  R,  57,  74. 

*K.  B.  Ill',  p.  23,  note  ♦+.  »V.  R.  37,  18. 

•  See  p.  182,  note  i  ,  p.  185,  note  xo.       'Z.  A.  XV.  p.  52. 

'Zimmern,  Z.  A.  III.  232-235.  £.  B.  H.  p.  189.  Thureau-Dangin,  Z.  A. 
XV.  p.  50.     Songe  de  Goud^a,  C.  R.,  190X,  p.  XX2. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  4I 

E-ninnu.  He  therefore  addresses  goddess  Nina  for  an  explanation 
of  the  dream,  and  she  informs  him  that  that  man  was  her  brother 
**Nin-Girsu." 

The  description  which  Gudea  gives  of  ** the  man,*'  reads^: 

14.  shag  ma-mu-da-ka  (ga)la-I*a-an  an-gim  RI-BA-ni 

15.  ki-gim  RI-BA-ni 

16.  A-NE  sag-ga-ni-ku  dingir-ra-an 

17.  id-ni-ku  *^'"^' Im-gig-ghu  dam 

18.  sig-ba-ni-a-ku  A-MA-SHUB-kam 

19.  zi-da  gub-na  UG  ni-nad-nad 

20.  e-a-ni  ru-da  ma-an-dug 

21.  shag-ga-ni  Du-mn-zu  ' 

Which  might  be  translated-:' 

14.  In  the  midst  of  my  dream  (behold) :  A  man — like  the  heavens  his  RI-BA 

15.  like  the  earth  his  RI-BA— 

16.  A-NE  above  him — surely  a  god  ! 

17.  At  his  sides  there  was  **">«*' Im-gig-ghn, 

18.  At  whose  feet  there  was  an  A-MA-SHUB 

19.  At  the  right  and  his  left  an  UG  was  couched 

20.  His  house  to  build  he  commanded  me 

21.  Him  (lit.  his  heart)  I  did  not  know. 

The  goddess  Nina,  when  explaining  to  Nin-Gir-su  the  mean- 
ing of  this  dream,  uses  the  following  words*  : 

13-  (ga)lu  an-gira  RI-BA  ki-gim  RI-BA-kn 

14.  sag-ga-ku  dingir  id-ni-kn 

15.  **''^^'Im-gig-ghu-ku  sig-ba-a-ni-ku  A-MA-SHUB-ku 

'  See  especially  Thureau-Dangin,  Z.  A.  XV.  51. 

'Gudea.  Cyl.  A.  IV.  14-21. 

*  Thureau-Dangin,  /.  c.,  and  Songe  de  Coud/a,  p.  119,  translates: 

"Au  milieu  de  (mon)  songe,  un  homme  grand  comme  (so  no  doubt  better 
than  the  '  dont  la  taille  ^galait '  in  Z.  A.)  le  ciel. 

Grand  comme  (Z.  A. :  dont  la  taille  6galait)  la  terre 

Sur  la  t^te  de  qui  ^tait  una  tiare  (Z.  A.  .  .  .  for  tiare)  divine 

A  cot^  de  qui  ^tait  I'oiseau  divin  IM>GIG 

Aux  pieds  de  qui  ^tait  un  ouragan 

A  la  droite  et  a  la  gauche  de  qui  un  lion  ^tait  concb^ 

M'a  ordonn^  de  construire  sa  maison : 

Je  ne  I'ai  pas  reconnn." 
*Cyl.  A.  V.  13-18. 


42  THE  CREATION-STORV  OF  GENESIS  I. 

16.  zi-da  gub-na  UG  nt  nad-*oad-*a 

17.  shesh-mu  <*'"&■' Nin-Gir-su  ga-nam  me-a-an 

18.  esh  E-ninnfl  na-ru-ba  za-ra  ma-ra-an-dug. 

Which  when  translated  would  read  :* 

13.  The  man  :  like  the  heavens  in  RI-BA  like  the  earth  in  RI-6A 

14.  With  that  head — the  god — at  his  sides 

15.  with  a  ^'"?'am-gig-ghu,  at  his  feet  with  an  A-MA-SHUB — 

16.  at  the  right  and  his  left  an  UG  being  couched — 

17.  ray  brother  ^'"?'^Nin-Gir-su  surely  is  he, 

18.  the  house  £-ninnu  to  build  he  has  commanded  thee. 

If  we  would  draw  a  picture  of  the  ''man"  Nin-Gir-su,  we 
would  have  to  do  it  as  follows : 

^  A-NE 


dinpirlm-gig-ghU 


\ 

UG\ 


galu  = 

dinP'Nin- 

Gir-sQ 


d"»K«Im-gig-ghu 


/UG 


A-MA-SHUB 

Intentionally  some  words  were  left  untranslated  above,  be- 
cause on  the  right  interpretation  of  them  depends  everything. 

A-MA-SHUB  is,  as  Thureau-Dangin^  has  shown,  the  Semitic- 
Babylonian  a-bu-bu,  "stormflood." 

dingir  Im-gig-ghu,  if  translated  word  for  word,  would  mean  :  ^^ 
cloud,  dark  or  black,  bird  or  flying. 

The  two  words  suffice  to  show  us  that  '*the  man"  or  Nin-Gir- 
su  when  appearing  to  Gudea  was  upon  a  *'stormflood'*  and  sur- 
rounded by  '< flying  dark  clouds."  If  bar-bar  be  added  to  E-'^'^g'^Im- 

*  The  inscription  gives  SA-SA,  which,  no  doubt,  is  a  mistake  for  NAD-NAD, 
as  is  apparent  from  above,  col.  IV.  19. 

^Thureau-Dangin,  Son^e,  p.  120,  translates: 

13.  I'homme  grand  comme  Ic  ciel,  grand  comme  la  terrc 

14.  sur  la  t6te  de  qui  ^tait  (une  eiare)  divine,  a  cot^  de  qui 

15.  ^tait  I'oiseau  divin  IM-GIG,  anx  pieds  de  qui  ^tait  an  ouragan 

16.  a  droite  et  a  gauche  de  qui  an  lion  ^tait  coach^ 

17.  c'est  mon  frere,  NIN-GIR-SU  : 

18.  il  t'ordonnait  de  construire  sa  demeare,  I'E-ninnfi 

»Z.  A.  XV.  51,  notes. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  43 

gig-ghu,  we  get  the  name  of  the  temple  E-ninnu  dedicated  to  Nin- 
Gir-su.  And  because  the  E-ninnu  is  called  the  temple  of  d>«gir  jm- 
gig-ghu-bar-bar,  it  follows  that  the  latter  name  was  also  a  surname 
of  Nin-Gir-su.  From  this  it  also  follows  that  **the  flying  dark 
clouds"  are  or  may  become  sometimes  ** very  bright"! 

The  UG,  which  are  at  the  left  and  the  right  side  of  '*the 
man's"  feet  will  and  must  signify  a  similar  thing.  Now^,  I  do  not 
think  that  Thureau-Dangin  is  right  in  translating  UG  by  "lions," 
although  UG  may  have  that  meaning-  Thureau-Dangin^  himself 
says:  "II  est  probable  que  UG-GAL  est  identique  a  UD-GAL." 
UD  has  also  the  reading  UG  !  And  UD  or  better  UG-GAL  is 
translated  b}^  umu  and  means  "storm"  or  "great  wind."'  UG 
alone  would  mean  "wind"  or  "storm"  too.'  The  A-NE  at  the 
head  of  this  "man"  might  be  taken  either  as  the  plural  of  A,  i.  e., 
"rain,"  "waters,"  or  probably  better  as  A-f  BIL,  i.  e.,  "water 
and  fire."     What  this  fire  was  we  shall  see  directly. 

The  remaining  RI-BA  has  been  translated  by  Thureau-Dangin 
in  his  **Songe  de  Goud^a''  quite  correctly.  It  no  doubt  means  that 
the  man  was  as  large  or  great  as  the  heavens*  and  earth,  extended 
over  heaven  and  earth ;  his  course^  was  so  wide  and  so  large  that  it 
went  all  over  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 

Thus  the  description  might  be  interpreted  as  follows :  There 
appeared  a  "man"  to  me  who  was  as  regards  his  size  as  large  and 
extended  as  the  heavens  and  earth.  Rain  and  fire  were  above  him! 
At  the  sight  of  which  Gudea  is  completely  awe-stricken  and  is 
forced  to  exclaim  :  Surely  it  is  a  god  ! — such  impression  this  rain 
and  fire  made  upon  him.  At  his  sides  were,  i.  e.,  he  was  surrounded 
by  "flying  dark  clouds"  and  was  carried  by  a  "stormflood,"  and 

»Z.  A.  XV.  p.  49.  2  Deiitzsch,  H.  W.  B.  p.  33. 

*Cyl.  A  II.  9;  Ur-sag  ug  zig-ga  gab-shu-gar  nu-tug  **'"?'' Nin-Gir-sn,  I  would 
translate  accordingly  :  Oh  warrior,  Oh  furious  tempest,  who  has  no  rival,  Oh  Nin- 
Gir-su!  etc.  Comp.  alsoCyl.  A  IX.  21  (Nin-Girsu)  ur-sag-gal  ki-'*'"**' En-liMal-ka 
en  gab-ri  nu-tug,  "  the  great  hero  in  the  domain  of  £n-Ii1,  the  lord  without  equal." 

*  See  also  Cyl.  A.  VII.  4,  5,  en-na  shag  an-gim  sud-du-ni  <*'"«?<' Nin-Gir-su  dumn 
<iio?>r£n-lil-laI,  I.  e.,  "the  lord  whose  heart  is  as  extended  as  the  heavens:  Nin- 
Girsu.  son  of  Eii'lil." 

*  Ri-ba  =  rib-ba  (Thureau-Dangin,  1.  c.  p.  51,  note  3)  =  pnK.  H.  W.  B.  p.  159. 


44  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

at  his  feet  there  were  two  ** storms"  or  ** tempests."  The  only  god 
whom  such  a  description  fits  is  of  course  Ramm&n.  That  this  Nin- 
Gir-su  cannot  be  any  other  but  Ramman  is  corroborated  by  the 
following  considerations  : 

1.  Nin-Gir-su  has  a  special  servant:  the  god  Nin-sar  who  is 
called  the  gir-lal  **'°8»^Nin-Gir-su-ka.^  Gir  is=birqu,  ** lightning," 
**thunderbolt,"  and  lal  =  nashu,  '*to  lift  up,  6arry,"  or  =  shapaku, 
**to  pour  out."  Nin-Gir-su  thus  is  not  only  the  god  of  rain  and 
storm,  but  also  the  god  of  lightning,  or  else  he  could  not  have  a 
^'thunderbolt  carrier,"  who  occasionally  may  **pour  out"  the  thun- 
derbolts. In  old  Babylonian  times  there  also  existed  a  ^'"R'^Nin- 
Gir,2  who,  no  doubt,  is  the  same  as  the  *^^°k''^  Nin-sar,  for  Nin-Gir 
means  the  "lord  of  the  Gir  or  thunderbolts."  The  GIR  or  ''thun- 
derbolt" is  also  contained  in  Nin-GIR-su  as  well  as  in  GIR-su ! 
Even  the  bar-bar  of  <^'"8'''  Im-gig-ghu-bar-bar  indicates  the  bright- 
ness and  flashes  of  the  lightning  or  thunderbolts.'  This  is  also  why 
I  would  read  for  A-NE=A-BIL.*  Nin-Gir-su  =  Ramman  appears 
unto  Gudea  in  rain,  storm,  and  fire,  i.  e.,  flashes  of  lightning. 

2.  The  "dream"  itself  of  Gudea  speaks  for  our  interpretation. 
The  opening  of  Cylinder  A  describes  the  terrible  drought  of  Girsu- 
Shirpurla,  which  can  only  come  to  an  end  by  some  pious  deed  of 
Gudea.  And  what  is  more  natural  for  Gudea  than  to  build  a  temple 
in  honor  of  just  the  god  of  rain,  storm,  and  lightning,  that  the 
drought  might  cease  !  And  this  god  is  Nin-Gir-su  =  '*»°k»'^  Im-gig- 
ghu-bar-bar  =  Ramman,  who  promises  thereupon  that  the  drought 
shall  cease  after  the  temple  has  been  built.  ^  (For  ur-<*'°«>'^Nin-Gir- 
su  =  ikkaru  see  below,  p.  66,  note.) 


^Urakagina,  D^c.  XLIX.  =E.  B.  H.  p.  52,  23  (where  we  have  to  read  for 
shag-lal  =  gir-lal  as  D^c.  XLIX.  clearly  shows),  so  also  E.  B.  H.  p.  51  1.  14  ff. 
read:  '^'^^'^ Nin-sar  gir-lal  <*'"«^'^Nin-su-gir-ra,  and  see  already  above,  p.  23,  6. 

2  See  the  proper  name  Ur-  "^i^P' Nin-gir.  E.  B.  H.  p.  413. 

'  See  also  Cyl.  A.  XI.  3,  where  E-ninnfl  is  called  <i'°Jn' Im-gig-ghu  an-sar-ra  shcg- 
gi-g'i,  "the  Im-gig-ghu  that  flashes  over  the  whole  heaven,"  and  comp.  with  this 
Thureau-Dangin,  Songe  dt  Goudia,  p.  14,  note  x. 

*  Notice  also  that  9i  flame  (BIL)  is  Nin-Gir-su's  sign.     Cyl.  A  XII.  10. 

*  Thureau-Dangin,  Songe  de  Goudda,  col.  XI.!  The  rains  will  be  announced 
by  a  wind,  Und. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  45 

3.  If  my  interpretation  be  correct — and  there  can  hardly  be  a 
doubt  about  its  correctness — I  would  explain  the  <i'°g»f  IM^  the  well- 
known  ideogram  for  Ramman  to  be  simply  a  further  abbreviation 
q{  dingir  Im-gig-ghu  or  dingir  Im-gig-ghu-bar-bar  respectively. 

4.  Now  we  also  understand  the  so-called  second  triad  of  the 
Babylonian  gods;  they  are  ZU,  UD,  and  X  =  Nin-Gir-su,  or  in 
Semitic :  Sin,  Shamash,  and  Ramman.  This  is  the  common  se- 
quence in  which  they  occur.  Sin  is  the  head  or  abu,'-'  Shamash  his 
son,  and  Ramman  is  the  *am,  the  **  father's  brother."  Here  then 
we  have  the  other  raht  !  If  the  enumeration  be :  Sin,  Ramman, 
Shamash,^  it  would  be  parallel  to  Anu,  Ea,  Bel,  i.  e.,  the  two 
brotbers  mentioned  first,  and  then  the  son  of  the  former. 

The  two  triads  of  the  Babylonian  pantheon  are  two  rahts  and 
parallel  to  each  other ;  they  go  back  to  the  oldest  times  of  the 
Babylonian  history — another  proof  for  the  great  age  of  the  Sumer- 
ian  civilisation ! 

dingir  Ba-u,  the  wife  of  **^°b>'^  Nin-Gir-su,  had  seven  sons,*  who 
were  at  the  same  time  the  **banda"  of  Nin-Gir-su.*  What  these 
** seven  sons"  stood  for,  is  hard  to  tell.  Three  possibilities  might 
be  taken  into  consideration : 

(i)  They  represent  the  seven  planets.' 

(2)  The  seven  Igigi,  or  spirits  of  heaven. 

(3)  The  seven  winds  or  evil  spirits,  who  are  closely  connected 
with  Ramman.' 

'  For  references  see  E,  B.  H.,  Index,  Gods,  p.  443  sub  I." 

'^  This  fact  explains  why  Sin  is  called  in  the  celebrated  Moon-hymn  (IV.  R.  9) 
abu.  He  is  the  head,  for  this  means  "aba"  here,  of  the  raht.  The  aba  =  father 
(of  the  gods)  is  En-lil,  as  was  seen  above.  See  also  Winckler,  M.  V.  A.  G.,  1901, 
4.  p.  20.  In  later  inscriptions  the  following  gods  are  called  abu  ilini ;  B6I.  Ashar 
Anu,  Ea  and  Sin.     See  H.  W.  B.  sub.  aba,  p.  3. 

'  As  e.  g.  in  the  Black  Obelisk  of  Shalmaneser  11!  11.  6,  7. 

*  See  above,  p.  23,  note  6.  'Gudea,  Cyl.  B.  XI.  4-12. 

•"  That  the  Babylonians  knew  also  of  seven  planets  besides  sun  and  moon,  and 
not,"  as  Winckler  thinks,  always  of  five  only  (with  sun  and  moon  =  seven),  is  evi- 
dent from  the  figures  of  the  Kudurra  of  Nabil-shum-ishkun,  now  in  the  Berlin 
Museum.  There  we  have  "the  sun,"  " the  moon,"  "the  morning  star,"  and  "the 
seven  planets." 

'See,  e.  g.,  IV.  R.  5.  29  £f.,  Delitrsch.  H.  W.  B.  p.  33  sub.  (imu,  and  Winck- 
ler, Der  Alte  Orient,  III.  p.  95. 


46  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

I  myself  would  rather  see  in  them  the  seven  winds,  cp.  e.  g., 
the  name  of  the  third  son  Ur-kalam-ta-ud-du-a,  i.  e.,  "the  one 
who  (a)  goeth  forth  (ud-du)  out  of  (ta)  the  foundation  (ur  =  ishdu) 
of  the  earth  (kalam),  as  such  he,  no  doubt,  is  the  same  as  the 
Gim-nun-ta-ud-du-a,  "the  one  who  goeth  forth  out  of  the  abode  or 
building  (GIM)  of  the  NUN  (or  ocean),"  mentioned  already  by  king 
Uru-ka-gi-na  at  about  4500  B.  C.^  Both  would  signify  the  "<rax/- 
wind,"  as  coming  from  the  Persian  Gulf.  Nin-sar,  too,  would 
speak  for  the  winds,  storms,  lightnings,  that  accompany  Ramman. 
By.  Urukagina  are  also  mentioned  the  Za-za-ru^  or  first  son,  the 
Im-pa-ud-du^  or  second  son,*  and  the  Nin-sar.  This  latter  I  take 
to  be  not  only  the  same  as  the  ^'^^^'^^  Nin-gir  but  also  as  the  ^'"^^^ 
GHE  (or  GAN)-gir-nun-na — the  one  is  the  gir-lal,  "thunderbolt 
carrier,"  the  other  is  the  "lord  of  the  thunderbolt,"  and  the  third 
has  at  least  something  to  do  with  the  GIR  as  the  name  Ghe  (or 
Gan)-GIR-nun-na  indicates.''  The  fifth  son  Ghe  (or  GAN)-shag- 
ga  probably  is  identical  again  with  the  Dun-shag-ga,  who,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  called  "a  son  of  Nin-Gir-su."^  Ka-iir-mu,  the  sixth, 
and  Za-ar-mu,  the  seventh  son,  are  known  to  me  only  from  this 
passage. 

The  *^'°8JrGal-alim,  from  whom  Gudea  receives  "dominion  and 
a  great  scepter,""  and  who,  as  we  have  seen,  is  also  a  son  of  Nin- 
Gir-su,  I  would  like  to  identify  with  Nin-sar  the  gir-lal  of  Nin- 
Gir-su.  Gudea,  no  doubt,  wants  to  say  by  this,  that  he  has  re- 
ceived a  scepter  like  that  of  Nin-sar,  i.  e.,  "a  thunderbolt,"  by 
means  of  which  he  was  able  to  retgn  and  put  down,  if  necessary, 
his  enemies. 

That  some  of  the  sons  of  <^*°8ir  Ba-u  are  mentioned  already  by 

»E.  B.  H.  p.  54.  2E.  B.  H.  p.  53.  »E.  B.  H.  p.  53. 

*  Is  this  Im-pa-ud-du  perhaps  identical  with  the  Dun-pa-ud-da,  E.  B.  H.  p.  312, 
3142  ?     See  also  Gin-<^'"s^' Dun-pa-ud-du  and  Ur-'''"P''Dun-pa-ud-dn. 

'  The  name  of  this  god  is  also  found  in  a  shortened  form,  see  E.  B.  H.  p.  52. 
27,  where  we  have  to  read  according  to  D^c.  XLIX.  ['^'^e^'GHle  (or[GA]N)-gir 
ki-ag  <''"P'Nin-Gir-5U-ka-ra. 

•E.  B.  H.  pp.  195,  196. 

'Gudea,  Statue  B.  11.  18,  19:  nam-ner-gal  pa-magh  sum-ma  <>"»«" Gal-alim-ka-ge 
(K.  B.  III».  p.  28). 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  47 

Uru-ka-gi-na,^  shows  that  the  whole  system  of  the  Babylonian  the- 
ogony  was  fully  developed  as  early  as  4500  B.  C. 

This  Nin-Gir-su,  this  god  of  lightning,  thunder,  rain,  and 
storm,  was  **the  warrior,"  or  ''mighty  hero"'  of  Bel  or  En-lil. 
En-lil  has  indeed  a  strong  hero !  From  this  follows,  that  when- 
ever Bel  appears,  he  is  accompanied  by  Nin-Gir-su,  i.  e.,  Bel  ap- 
pears in  company  with  lightning,  thunder,  and  clouds.  And  who 
does  not  think  instantly  of  the  nin^  of  the  Old  Testament  who  too 
appears  in  company  of  such  an  "ur-sag  lig-ga?"  Exod.  xiv.  ig  ff. 
we  read  (R.  V.): 

"And  the  angel  of  God,  which  went  before  the  camp  of  Israel,  removed  and 
went  behind  them  :  and  the  fihxxr  0/  cloud  remoxedi  from  before  them  and  stood 
behind  them  :  and  it  came  between  the  camp  of  Egj'pt  and  the  camp  of  Israel : 
and  there  was  the  cloud  and  the  darkness,  yet  gave  it  liff?U  by  night," 

Can  we  possibly  have  a  more  striking  parallel  to  the  ^'^^^"  Nin- 
Gir-su  ur-sag  lig-ga  *^^°8»^  En-lil  ?  The  ur-sag  ox  "warrior"  corre- 
sponds to  ''the  angel.''  Nin-Gir-su  is  the  ur-sag  of  En-lil,  and  here 
we  have  the  "angel  of  God^''  i.  e.,  n'l.T  !  But  "the  angel"  appears 
here  under  a  cloud.  Nin-Gir-su  is  called  ^^'^R'^Im,  i.  e.,  "M<?  cloud.** 
The  "cloud  removed  from  before  them  and  stood  behind  them." 
dingir  jsJin.Qir-su  is  called  "the^7«^  Im-gig."  This  cloud  was  dark- 
ness and  light,  Nin-gir-su  is  called  ^*°8»rim.gig.ghu-bar-bar,  i.  e., 
"dark  cloud  flying,  flashing  up,  or  very  bright.'"  Hence  there  can- 
not be  any  doubt  that  "the  angel  of  God"  is  the  ur-sag  of  mrp 
and  thus  a  striking  parallel  to  the  old  <^»°8ir  Nin-Gir-su.  But  from 
this  it  also  follows  that  n^T  himself  is  no  storm-god  as  Stade*  and 
Winckler*  think,  but  the  storm-god  is  "the  angel "  or  the  ur-sag,  i.  e., 
Nin-Gir-su,  who  accompanies  En-lil  or  nVJ^-  En-lil  or  ,TmT  is  the 
Bel,  "the  Lord"  KaT*  €^oxt}v  must  therefore  necessarily  be  accom- 
panied by  his  special  "ur-sag"  or  "angel"  and  this  is  "the  thun- 
dering and  lightning  dark  cloud,"  hence  nin"*  is  usually  represented 

*  Were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  "barrel-cylinder"  is  broken,  we  might  have 
found  mentioned  on  it  all  seven  sons. 

'  The  nr.sag,  or  ur-sag  lig-ga,  see  above,  pp.  23,  X2. 

*  Ceschichte  des  Volkts  Isratls,  Vol.  I.,  429  £f. 

*  Ceschichte  Israels,  Vol.  I.,  p.  37  ff. 


48  THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

as  coming  in  the  company  of  just  such  a  cloud.*  En-lil  as  **king 
of  heaven  and  earth"  and  "king  of  the  gods"  speaks  and  acts  only 
through  his  ur-sag,  i.  e.,  lit.  translated  ** head-servant,"  **prime- 
minister,"'  so  .T.r;"*  *'the  lord  of  hosts"  speaks  also  through  his 
** head-servant "  or  **prime  minister":  the  ?]Kb?3 — and  what  this 
** prime  minister"  says  or  does,  that  says  or  does  nVT  or  En-lil. 
Hence  we  read  Psalm  xviii.  6  ff.  (R.  V.): 

6.  In  my  distress  I  called  upon  the  Lord, 
And  cried  unto  my  God : 

He  heard  my  voice  out  of  his  temple, 

And  my  cry  before  him  came  into  his  ears.* 

7.  Then  the  earth  shook  and  trembled, 

The  foundations  also  of  the  mountains  moved 
And  were  shaken,  because  he  was  wroth. 

8.  There  went  up  a  smoke  out  of  his  nostrils. 
And  fire  out  of  his  mouth  devoured : 
Coals  were  kindled  by  it, 

9.  He  bowed  the  heavens  also  and  came  down.* 
And^  thick  darkness^  was  under  him, 

10.  And  he  rode  upon  a  cherub,  and  did^^,' 

Yea,  he/Jew''  stuiftly  upon  the  ivings"^  of  the  zvind,^ 

*  See,  e.  g.,  Isaiah  xix.  i  (swift  cloud,  R.  V.);  and  the  different  passages  about 
"the  whirlwind."  Compare  also  Acts  xiv.  11,  12  :  Zeus  and  Hermes  (=  Barnabas 
and  Paul). 

2  See  here  especially  Gudea,  Cyl.  A.  II.  11,  12  : 

dinsirj^jjj.Qjj-.sQ  2u-ab-a 

En-lil-ki-a  (?)  ner-gal  (?) 

Which  Thureau-Dangin  translates  {Song-e  de  Goudea,  p.  116). 

6  Nin-gir-su,  toi  qui  dans  I'abtme 

toi  qui  a  Nippur  es  au  premier  rang. 

Nippur  is  the  city  of  Enlil,  and  there  Nin-gir-su  has  "the  premier  rang,"  i.  c. 
he  is  the  ur-sag  or  TJX'??2,   the  "  head-servant"  or  "  prime-minister  "  of  BM-Enlil. 

*As  soon  as  rnH*— En-lil  hears  the  crying,  he  dispatches  his  "prime-minister," 
the  ur-sag.  The  ur-sag,  taking  here  the  place  of  T^^T^*' — En-lil,  because  he  acts  for 
him.— comes  under  thundering  and  lightning. 

*The  ur-sag,  so  far  thundering  above,  approaches  the  earth. 

'The  ur-sag  is  upon  the  earth,  the  poet  sees  him  and  describes  him, — like 
Gudea  of  old  I 

•Comp.  thea-ma-shub  or  "storm  flood,"  and  the  IM-GIG  of  Nin-Girsn. 

'Comp.  the  GHU,  "flying,"  in  Gudea's  Imgig-GHU. 

•Comp.  the  UG,  "storm,"  "  tempest,"  which  are  at  Nin-Girsu'a  feet. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  49 

11.  He  made  darkness  his  hiding-place,  his  pavilion  round  about  him,* 
Darkness 2  of  the  waters,'  thick  clouds  of  the  skies. 

12.  At  the  brightness*  before  him  his  thick  clouds  passed, 
Hailstones  and  coals  oijire^ 

13.  The  Lord^  also  thundered  in  the  heavens, 
And  the  Most  High  uttered  his  voice : 
Hailstones  and  coals  of  fire. 

14.  And  he*  sent  out  his  arroivs  and  scattered  them : 
Yea,  lightnings  manifold,  and  discomfited  them. 

That  this  description  must  be  understood  of  the  nVT*  TjXb?3  and 
not  of  M*r»^  himself,  is  evident  from  the  "angel  of  god**  in  Genesis 
chapters  i8  and  19,  who  speaks  and  acts  like  T^^T^'  and  who  (he  is 
called  here  simply  r.iri*)  rains  upon  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  brimstone 
and  _/fr<r  2r?pyi  p  .T.M*  n(<r;.7  This  *' from  heaven"  is  no  gloss,  as 
some  commentators  want  it,  but  indicates  that  rr.rr  himself  is  some- 
where else,  while  acting  through  his  prime-minister  or  rjK/tt»  who 
therefore,  as  his  (Jahveh's)  representative,  is  called  nvr  too ! 

A  further  corroboration  of  this  may  be  found  in  Gudea,  Cyl. 
A  IX.  20— X.  5,8  where  the  "lugal  A-MA-SHUB,"  the  "king  of 
the  stormflood,"  is  said  to  be  <*»°g>f  En-lil  or  Bel. 

*  The  Im-gig-ghu  or  "the  flying  dark  clouds  "  surround  Nin-Gir-su. 

2 Comp.  the  a-ma-shub  or  "storm-flood,"  and  the  IM-GIG  of  Nin-Girsu. 

'Comp.  the  A  or  "water"  which  is  "  above  "  Nin-Gir-su. 

*Comp.  the  BIL,  "fire,"  that  is  "above"  Nin-Gir-su,  and  the  bar-bar  in  Im- ^ 
gig-ghu-bar-bar. 

5,Tn^  or  En-lil  through  the  "  ur-sag." 

*The  "ur-sag"  or  "angel"  or  "prime-minister"  makes  use  of  his  gir-lal,  i.e., 
of  <^'°?'' Nin-sar,  bids  him  to  pour  out  or  send  out  (shapdku)  his  gir  or  "lightnings, 
thunderbolts." 

'Gen.  xix.  24. 

'Translated  by  Thureau-Dangin,  Songe  de  GoucUa,  p.  125,  as  follows: 

IX.  20.   Moi  je  suis  Nin-Gir-su  qui  icarte. ... 

21.  le  grand  h^ros  aupres  de  Bel, 

22.  le  seigneur  sans  rival ; 

23.  mon  temple  (est)  I'E-ninnQ  ou  moi. ... 

24.  mon  arm  le  SHAR-UR  qui  sous  son  pouvoir  r^uit  les  cootr^et 

25.  mon  IGI-GHUSH  qui  n'^pargne  rien  au  monde, 

26.  mon  DA-BAT  a  qui  personne  n'  ^happe 

X.     I (This  line  reads :  A-KU-mu  nam-gal  ki-ag-da) 

2.  "  LK  MAITKB  DB  L'OURAGAN  (BST)  BBL  (II)" 

3.  "son  oeil  irrit^  (i.  e.,  the  IGI-GHUSH)  n'  ^pargne  rien  aa  monde" 


$0  THE  GREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

The  ''weapons"*  used  by  Nin-Gir-su  and  which  are  mentioned 
in  the  above-given  passage,  are  no  doubt  the  h'ghtning,  thunder- 
bolt, etc.,  etc.  There  can  be,  then,  no  doubt  that  n*.n^  has  his  ex- 
act counterpart  in  ^^'^R'^En-lil,  and  that  the  latter's  ur-sag  is  the 
.T.n«»  'r]Kb?2  of  the  Old  Testament.  Thus  ni.T  is  not  a  ''  god  of  storm,'' 
but  **the  lord  who  is  accompanied  by  the  storm," — a  difference  1 

But  what  or  who  is  this  <^'°8''^  En-lil — r^^r^"^  HommeP  takes 
diiiRir En.jii  to  be  the  **Herr  der  Luft,"  because  LIL=zaqiqu'  = 
Sturmwind,  wind,  and  the  kur-kur  in  lugal-kur-kur  as  signifying 
**die  Berge  des  Luftreichs,  die  Wolken."  This  latter  he  derives 
from  the  signification  of  <^'"8ir  Nin-char-sag  and  the  surname  of  Bel : 
KUR-GAL,  ** the  great  mountain."*  Against  this  might  be  said 
that  a  zaqiqu  or  wtnd'is  not  yet  '*air,''  and  that  in  later  (Assyrian) 
inscriptions  the  lugal-kur-kur  is  always  translated,  not  by  shar 
shade,  but  always  ""bel  matati.*  On  accout  of  this  latter  transla- 
tion LIL  was  taken  to  signify  ''the  lord  of  the  lands."  The  main 
attributes  of  Enlil  were,  as  we  have  seen,  "the  king  of  heaven  and 
earth,"  "the  king  of  the  lands,"  "the  king  of  the  gods,"  **the 
father  of  the  gods."  As  time  went  on,  these  specific  attributes  of 
Enlil  were  applied  even  to  other  gods  according  to  the  influence 
they  were  able  to  exercise  over  the  inhabitants  of  early  Babylonia. 
Thus  it  happens  that,  e.  g.,  the  moon-god  Sin  had  the  following 

arrogant  titles : 

''"  Sin  bel  ilani  sha  shame-e  u  irtsi-tim 
sbar  ilini  ill  (written  ila  -|-  pi.)  sha  ildni 
a-shi-ib  shame-e  rabdte.* 

4.  "  Nin-Gir-so  guerricr  de  Bel " 

5.  de  ces  noms  seront  nomm^. 

»  See  also  Gudea,  Cyl.  B  VII.  and  Statue  B  V.  37;  VI.  49  et  passim. 
'Identitat,  etc.,  p.  219. 

*Ungar.  lei  anima,  tOrk.  yel,  "Wind,"  Hommel,  ibid. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  220. 
•    'See,  e.  g.,  Obelisk  of  Shalmaneser  II.,  1.  3:  *'» b^l-mititi  "»B61.  also  p. 59,  2! 
*  "  Sin,  the  lord  of  the  gods  of  heaven  and  earth, 
the  king  of  the  gods,  the  god  of  gods 
that  inhabit  the  great  heavens." 
Nabd-ni'id.  Thoncylinder  aus  Ur.     A.  W.  p.  43.  col.  I.  28  ff.     Sin  it  the  b^l  ilAni 
in  at  far  ai  he  is  the  "head"  or  ab  of  the  second  triad  or  rabf.     But  the  titles 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.^  5I 

Yes,  when  god  Marduk  occupied  the  most  supreme  place  in 
the  Babylonian  pantheon,  Nabu-nS'id  does  not  know  how  to  honor 
him  more  than  by  calling  him  ^'"^''^EN-LIL  ilani  »'^  Marduk 
(AMAR-UD),i  which  is  generally  transcribed  »"b§l  ilani  »°  Mar- 
duk, and  translated  **the  lord  of  the  gods,  Marduk," — the  original, 
and  no  doubt  intended  signification  however  is:  "the  EN-LIL  of 
the  gods  (viz. :)  Marduk. "  By  thus  terming  his  supreme  god,  Nabu- 
na*id  wanted  to  show  that  Marduk  takes  the  place  of  EN-LIL  of 
old. 

Above  we  have  seen  that  **  heaven  and  earth  "were  considered 
by  the  old  Babylonians  to  be  closely  connected,  so  closely  as  to 
require  only  <7/7r  god ;  and  if  there  was  only  <?«<!•  god  for  "heaven 
and  earth,"  then  this  latter  must  have  been  considered  as  onf.  This 
one  thing,  this  heaven-earth,  AN-KI,  has,  when  thus  looked  upon 
as  one  the  name  LIL.  The  first  triad,  when  enumerated  has  mostly 
the  sequence  Anu,  Bel,  Ea,  i.  e.,  Bel  is  mentioned  between  his 
father  and  his  'am  "father's-brother."  That  just  this  sequence 
should  have  become  a  stereotyped  one  must  have  a  meaning.  The 
explanation  of  this  sequence  no  doubt  is  the  following:  AN  "the 
heavenly  ocean,"  and  KI  "the  terrestrial  ocean"  are  separated  ac- 
cording to  the  Bible  (Gen.  i.)  by  the  so-called  r-p"i  {raqid)  generally 
translated  by  "firmament,"  which  latter  is  there  "to  keep  back 
the  waters  of  the  heavenly  ocean."  This  conception  however  is 
only  one-sided.  For  we  may  very  well  ask,  if  the  heavenly  ocean 
is  kept  back  by  a  y-p-),  by  what  is  the  terrestrial  ocean  kept  back  ? 

And  when  Job ^  complains : 

"Am  I  a  sea  or  a  sea-monster 
That  thou  settcst  a  watch  over  me," 

he  did  not  think  so  much  of  a  "heavenly  sea  or  sea-monster"  that 
is  to  be  guarded,  but  of  an  earthly  sea  or  sea-monster.  Thus  we 
would  necessarily  expect  that  there  was  also  a  r^pi  for  the  terres- 

"god  of  the  gods"  (with  ill  (=pl !)  comp.  also  the  fluralis  majestaticus  CM^K) 
and  ' '  king  of  the  gods  "  are  attributes  of  En- LIL.  See  p.  19,  9. 10. ,  and  Dent.  x.  27. 

*  Nabd-n^'id,  Thoncylinder  aus  Sippar.  A.-W.  p.  40,  col.  1. 1,  ai. 

'Chap.  vii.  xa. 


52  THE  CRE ATI aN- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

trial  ocean.  The  r*p"i  of  the  heavenly  ocean  is  called  ** heaven.* 
The  ** heaven *'^  or  '*the  firmament  of  heaven"*  keeps  back  the 
waters  above.  The  c''?:rn  y*p"i  itself  proves  that  there  must  have 
been  also  another  r*p"t  besides  that  of  heaven-^— or  else  the  c*?:tfn 
would,  to  say  the  least,  be  quite  unnecessary.  Thus,  even  P.  still 
was  under  the  impression  that  there  existed  a  c*'j:rn  y*pi  and,  of 
course,  as  we  may  conclude  a  ynxn  r^pn.  As  the  one  y^p'^  is  the 
** heaven,"  so  the  other  r*p"l  is  the  ''earth."  This  one  r^pn  that 
stands  bctivccn  the  heavenly  and  terrestrial  ocean,  and  keeps  back 
the  waters  above  the  firmament  as  well  as  below  the  firmament  is 
called  by  the  Sumerians :  LIL. 

Thus  we  understand  the  succession :  AN-LIL-KI  or  Anu,  Bel, 
Ea  it  stands  for:  the  heavenly  waters — the  r*p"i — the  terrestrial 
ocean,  by  the  r*p"i  they  are  divided,  by  it  they  also  are  kept  back, 
the  heavenly  ocean  by  the  r^pi  which  is  the  *^ heaven'"  and  the  ter- 
restrial ocean,  by  the  r*pi  which  is  the  "  earth. "  Thus  it  also  hap- 
pened that  according  to  P^  the  heaven  had  to  have  ** windows" 
(c*::ir."!  ri":N)  through  which  the  waters  of  the  heavenly  ocean  could 
pour  down  at  the  time  of  the  flood,  and  the  "terrestrial  ocean" — 
the  r.21  Orji  as  he  calls  it — had  likewise  to  have  some  exits  through 
which  the  waters  might  come,  and  these  exits  are  the  ''wells"  or 
ni:*r?2.  From  this  is  also  evident  that  not  only  the  heavenly  ocean 
was  "kept  back"  but  also  the  ferrestri'a/ oceSin — the  heavenly  by 
the  heaven  and  the  terrestrial  by  the  earth :  heaven  and  earth  thus 
form  the  r*pi  or  LIL.  And  EN-LIL  standing  between  the  AN 
and  KI,  i.  e.,  "the  heavenly  and  terrestrial  ocean,"  becomes  thus 
the  r*p'i  and  the  latter  again  under  a  twofold  aspect :  the  heaven 
and  earth — hence  he  is  "the  king  of  heaven  and  earth,"  or  of  the 
y^pi  that  stands  between  the  AN  and  KI ! 

This  consideration  gives  us  also  an  insight  into  the  COSMOL- 
OGY of  the  Sumerians. 

.    According  to  the  Sumerian  conception  the  earth  as  a  world 
EDIFICE  consisted  of  three  parts  : 

I  c^?::?  rp-l?  D%nbK  ^np^l,  Gen.  i.  8. 
a  C^^Xin  rpi3  niKtt.  Gen.  i.  14. 
'Gen.  vii.  11. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  53 

(i)  The  heavenly  ocean  or  AN. 

(2)  The  terrestrial  ocean  or  KI. 

(3")  The  r*p  or  LIL,  which  stands  between  the  AN  and  KI. 

These  three  parts  were  assigned  to  the  first  triad  or  rah%  of  the 
Sumerian  pantheon,  i.  e.,  to  Anu,  Ea,  Bel.  To  these  as  such  be- 
longs the  7vorld  edifice. 

As  there  existed  a  heavenly  and  a  terrestrial  ocean,  so  the  LIL 
or  r^p-;  was  considered  also  under  a  double  aspect : 

{a)  As  a  heavenly  2?*pi  or  an  =  shamu,  c^^;::  or  "heaven." 

(^)  As  a  terrestrial  r^pn  or  ki  =  irtsitu,  y-j<  or  '*earth." 

The  former  keeps  back  the  heavenly  and  the  latter  the  terres- 
trial ocean. 

This  latter  consideration  gives  us  the  so-called  twofold  divi- 
sion of  the  earth  as  world  edifice.    According  to  this  it  consisted : 

(i)  Of  the  upper  vjoxld,  which  is  AN-ta  =  elish,  i.  e.,  above: 
the  heavenly  world; 

,     (2)  Of  the  lower  world,  which  is  Kl-ta  =  shaplish,  i.e.,  below: 
the  terrestrial  world.^ 

The  heavenly  y*pi  appears  in  and  is  of  the  form  of  a  "half- 
circle"  or  better  "plate'* — and  as  the  heavenly  is  only  the  reflex  of 
the  terrestrial,  this  latter  was  considered  to  be  the  other  half  of  the 
circle  as  a  whole,  i.  e.,  of  the  r^pn  as  such.  And  if  the  r^pi  be  a 
circle  then  the  heavenly  and  terrestrial  ocean  must  also  form  a 
circle. 

The  world  edifice  is  inhabited.  The  inhabitants  which  dwell 
either  /«  or  within  the  r^pi  are  ZU,  UD,  Innanna,  Nin-Girsu.  Thus 
they  had  to  become  necessarily  his,  i.  e.,  LIL's  children.  LIL 
thus  becomes  not  only  the  LUGAL  or  "king,"  but  also  the  AB- 
BA or  "father"  of  the  gods.  ZU,  UD,  Innanna  are  the  moon, 
sun,  morning  or  evening-star.  Thus  we  find  that  even  according 
to  Gen.  i.  14  the  stars  are  put  c^^^stfn  'S*''^'^"!'    Each  one  of  these  stars 

'  This  twofold  division  is  mentioned  by  Diodorus  II.  30,  translated  in  Winckler, 
"Himmels-  und  Weltenbild  der  Babylonier  {Dcr  alte  Orient,  III.),  p.  62,  with 
these  words:  "Von  diesen  beobachten  die  Halfte  (sc.  of  the  36  godi)  dX^Hber* 
irdischen,  die  andere  Halfte  die  unterirdischen  Sttitten,  indem  tie  fiber  dat  bei 
den  Menschen  and  den  Gmern  geschehende  gleichzeitig  wachten." 


54  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

has  his  abode  and  special  sphere  not  only  in  the  terrestrial  but 
also  in  the  heavenly  :?^'p^.  When  they  are  in  the  latter  they  are 
visible,  but  when  in  the  former  they  become  invisible.  The  road 
they  had  to  travel  when  in  the  heavenly  r-pT  was  marked  out  for 
them  by  the  so-called  zodiac,  which  was  called  in  later  times 
shupnk  shame ^"^Y.  t..,  ** the  dam  of  heaven." 

The  functions  of  the  stars,  especially  those  of  the  two  great 
luminaries  are  according  to  Gen.  i.  14,  15  threefold: 

(1)  y-iKH-br  rxnb« 

(2)  nb^bn  1^2".  dim  p  r-anb* 

(3)  2'»:ri  c^^^^b"!  c^-.r'j^':5T«nnxb  rnv 

No.  2,  i.  e.,  **the  dividing  between  the  day  and  the  night"  is 
done  by  the  sun.  He  divides  what  we  call  **day"  into  two  equal 
halves — but  this  he  does  only  on  two  days  during  the  whole  year, 
i.  e.,  at  the  vernal  and  the  autumnal  equinox.  Where  the  sun  rises 
on  these  two  days  is  the  East  and  where  he  sets  is  the  West,  On 
these  two  days  it  takes  therefore  just  as  many  hours  for  the  sun  to 
travel  over  the  heavenly  as  over  the  earthly  r^pi,  or  in  other  words  : 
the  sun  is  just  as  many  hours  visible  as  he  is  invisible.  East  and 
West  becomes  thus  the  two  points  in  the  :?^pi  as  a  whole  where  the 
earthly  and  the  heavenly  touchy  i.  e.,  East  and  West  divide  the  r'^pi 
and  thus  also  the  whole  world  edifice  into  two  equal  halves :  into 
the  upper  or  heavenly  and  into  the  lower  or  terrestrial  world.  The 
East  of  the  terrestrial  world  is  however  at  the  same  time  the  West 
of  the  heaveply  and  vice  versa^  for  when  the  sun  rises  for  the 
** earth"  he  sets  for  the  *' heaven." 

The  ^^ nether  world''  or  Hades  was  considered  to  lie  in  the 
South,   i.  e.,  under  that  point  of  the   ** earth"  or  terrestrial  's*'rr\ 

_____ I  ■       I    ■ I  .  ■  ■  I     r 

^The  abode  of  UD,  e.  g.,  is  Ud-unug-''',  i.  c,  "  Shamash-abode  "  or  Larsa ; 
that  of  ZU  or  Uru:  Uru-unug-'''-ma,  i,  e.,  Nannar  (or  Sin)-abode  =  Ur;  that  of 
lonanna  :  Innanna-ab-*"'  (or  also  to  be  read  :  Innanna-uziug->" )  etc.,  etc. 

2  See  Winckler,  /.  c,  p.  62  flf. 

^  To  give  light  upon  the  earth.     Gen.  i.  13. 

<  To  divide  between  the  day  and  between  the  night.     Gen.  i.  14. 

^  To  be  for  signs.     This  expresses  the  astrologic  signification  of  the  start. 

*  And  for  seasons  and  for  days  and  years.  On  the  coarse  of  the  start,  espe* 
cially  on  that  of  the  sun  and  moon  the  calendar  it  based. 


THE  CREATION-STORV  OF  GENESIS  I.  55  * 

where  the  sun  stands  at  noon  during  the  equinox.  Also  the  upper 
world  has  a  Hades  which  likewise  was  considered  to  be  in  the 
South,  i.  e.,  under  the  same  point  of  the  ^^ heaven'^  or  heavenly  jrpi 
indicated  by  the  sun  at  noon  during  the  equinox.  We  would  get 
thus  in  the  world  edifice  as  a  whole  two  points  for  East,  West, 
and  South !  The  opposite  of  the  South  is  the  North.  If  we  would 
prolong  the  two  points  indicating  the  South  towards  the  North  they 
would  (i)  meet  in  one  and  the  same  point  of  the  line  which  connects 
the  East  and  the  W^est  or  which  divides  the  world  edifice  into  the 
upper  and  lower  world,  (2)  divide  the  lower  as  well  as  the  upper 
world  again  into  two  equal  halves.  The  point  where  they  meet  is 
the  North.  The  North  becomes  thus  not  only  the  centre  of  the 
TTTii  which,  as  we  saw,  was  considered  to  be  a  circle,  but  also  that 
of  the  whole  world  edifice.  Here  in  this  North,  in  this  centre 
*^  dwelt  the  gods  ^"^  there  also  the  ^'  mountain  of  the  gods, ^^  **der  Gotter- 
berg"  was  situated. 

Now  we  understand  the  na?ne  for  the  North.  In  Assyrian  it  is 
called  ishtanu  or  iltanu,  i.  e.,  ^^  the  only  one" — thus  called  in  con- 
tradistinction to  all  the  other  points,  of  each  of  which  we  have  two. 
There  is  only  one  North  in  the  world  edifice,  this  North  is  the 
same  for  the  heavenly  as  for  the  terrestrial  world.  In  Sumerian 
the  North  has  the  name  IM-SI-DI,  which  Delitzsch^  translates  by 
**gerade  Richtung"  i.  e.,  all  the  radii  of  the  great  periphery  of 
** heaven  and  earth  "  are  directed  towards  it  as  the  centre.* 

If  sun,  moon,  and  the  stars  are  in  the  y^p"i,  to  what  god  has  to 
be  assigned  the  region  around  the  centre  of  the  world  edifice,  i.  e., 
the  space  between  ** heaven  and  earth"? 

Speaking  from  our  present  standpoint  the  space  between 
"heaven  and  earth"  is  filled  out  by  the  air — hence  we  might  be  in- 
clined to  assign  that  region  to  the  "god  of  the  air"  to  the  *^  fferrn 
der  Luft."  But  there  does  not  seem  to  exist — either  in  Hebrew, 
or'in  Assyrian,  or  in  Sumerian — a  word  for  **air,"  at  least  no  such 
word  is  known  to  me.     The  Hebrew  n")!  does  not  mean  *'air,"  but 

« H.  W.  B.  p.  152. 

»  See  also  the  E-pa  e-ab-7-na !  Ub  =  kibratu,  **lVeUgegend,  -richtunff"  i.  e., 
*'tbe  temple  of  the  seven  regions."    Gudea,  Statue  D,  ii,  11.     (K.  B.,  {H^  p.  50.) 


S6 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 


*'wind,  spirit,  breath."  The  Sumerian  LIL  is  =  the  Assyrian 
zaqiqu,  i.  e.,  **wind,  storm,"  and  IM  is^sharu,  which  again  means 
**wind."  This  latter  word  gives  us  the  right  solution.  So  far  we 
were  able  to  assign  all  gods  to  a  special  sphere  or  function  in  the 
world  edifice.  One  god,  however,  remained  to  whom  no  such 
sphere  has  been  assigned  as  yet,  and  this  is  Nin-Gir-su  or  Ramman. 


s. 


(a)  Heavenly  ocean :  AN,  Anu;  (6)  Terrestrial  ocean :  KI,  Ea:  (c) 
Heavenly  r^p"*) :  an  =  Z""!2t,  shamfi  or  heaven  ;  (c')  Terrestrial  j^'p'^ : 
ki=t=Y^.X,  irtsitu  or  earth  ;  (c  -\-c')  The  domain  of  LIL  or  Bel.  On 
this  r"*p"l  is  to  be  found  the  shupuk  sham^,  i.  e.,  the  road  which  the 
sUn,  the  moon,  etc.,  had  to  travel;  (d)  the  domain  of  Nin-Gir-sn  = 
Rammin;  {£',  W,  S')  the  heavenly  world  ;  (E,  W,  S)  the  terres- 
trial world  ;  {E)  East  of  the  earth  =  {W)  West  of  the  heaven  ;  {E, 
W)  divide  the  world  edifice  into  two  equal  halves,  and  signify  the 
East  and  West  where  the  sun  rises  and  sets  at  the  equinox  ;  (A'') 
North,  the  centre  of  the  world  edifice;  (S,  S')  the  terrestrial  and 
the  heavenly  Hades. 

He  is,  as  we  have  seen  above,  not  a  star,  but  the  **god  of  storm, 
rain,  thunder,  lightning,  and  clouds,"  and  must  therefore  neces- 
sarily belong  to  the  region  between  the  heavenly  and  the  terrestrial 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  57 

y^pl !  With  this,  of  course,  agrees  also  Gudea's  description  of  Nin- 
Gir-su  =  Ramman,  who  is  said  as  regards  his  RI-BA  to  be  like 
heaven  and  earth  !  Ramman,  the  thunderer,  fills  all  the  space  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth  and  thus  reaches  from  the  lower  to  the 
upper  *' firmament."  To  this  space  must,  of  course,  also  be  as- 
signed the  seven  sons  of  Nin-Gir-su.  They  too  have  as  the  "seven 
winds'*  their  abode  between  heaven  and  earth. 

We  are  thus  able  to  draw  the  picture^  of  the  Sumerian  world- 
edifice  given  on  the  preceding  page.  (See  the  explanations  there 
given).     This  picture  explains  also  the  following  points : 

I.  God  EN-LI L  or  Bel  is  called  very  often  the  '^lugal-kur- 
kur.^'  Kur  may  mean  either  "the  mountain"  (shadu)  or  "the 
land"  (matu).  Lugal-kur-kur  might  thus  be  translated  either  by 
*^ king  of  the  mountains'*  ox  ^^ king  of  the  lands.**  Both  translations 
are  possible.  If  the  former  translation  be  accepted,  "the  moun- 
tains "  would  be  the  two  halves  of  the  y^pi.  The  upper  y^pi  or 
** heaven**  as  well  as  the  lower  ^''p")  or  ** earth**  appear  as  a  mountain 
when  looked  upon  from  the  North  or  center  of  the  whole  world 
edifice !  Lugal-kur-kur,  when  taken  in  this  sense,  would  mean 
literally  ''king  of  the  TWO  mountains.** 

P  informs^  us  that  Abraham  and  his  wife  and  Lot  came  with 
Terah  his  father  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldces.  This  Ur  was,  as  we  know 
now,  one  of  the  chief  Babylonian  cities  in  early  times,  it  being  es- 
pecially celebrated  on  account  of  its  temple  dedicated  to  the  moon- 
god,  i.  e.,  to  EN-ZU  or  Uru-ki,  the  first-born  of  EN-LIL  or  Bel. 
It  is  generally  supposed  that  Terah  together  with  his  son  Abraham 
worshipped  or  were  followers  of  this  very  moon-god,  because  they 
stopped  on  their  way  to  Canaan  in  JIarran,  where  there  was  an- 
other celebrated  temple  of  the  moon-god.  This  view,  no  doubt,  is 
true  of  Terah,  for  it  ought  to  be  remembered  that  he  it  is  who 
leaves  Ur  and  goes  to  Harran,  siniply  taking  with  him  his  son  Abra- 
ham'. Terah,  therefore,  and  not  Abraham,  puts  himself  again  under 
the  protection  of  his  old  god  while  in   Harran !     From  another 

*  For  another  picture  see  Jensen,  Kosmologie  der  Babylonier,  Anhang,  Tafel 
III. 

*Gea.  xi.  31. 


58  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

place,  however,  we  know  whom  Abraham  worshipped.     In  Exodus 
vi.  2,  3 — which  also  belongs  to  P — we  read : 

"And  God  spake  unto  Moses,  and  said  unto  him,  I  am  Jahveh  :  and  I  ap- 
peared unto  Abraham,  unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob  as  El  Shaddai,  but  by  my  name 
Jahveh  I  was  not  known  to  them." 

From  this  passage  we  learn  that  the  same  god  appeared  unto 
Abraham  as  well  as  unto  Moses,  but  unto  the  latter  under  a  differ- 
ent name.  The  name  had  been  changed,  it  is  true,  at  the  time  of 
Moses,  but  the  essence  of  that  god  was  and  remained  the  same ! 
Who,  then,  was  this  ^Zt''^^,  El  Shaddai? 

The  common  translation  *'lord  or  god  almighty"  is  simply 
based  upon  the  LXX.  TravroKparoyp  and  the  Vulg.  **omnipotens," 
and  is  as  such  merely  a  guess.     Two  explanations  seem  possible. 

1.  Shaddai  is  derived  either  from  the  root  shadad  {TTi),  **to 
be  dense,  to  be  or  to  make  tight,"  or 

2.  It  comes  from  shadah  (rnt),  **to  be  high,"  from  which  we 
have  the  Assyrian  shadu,  "mountain." 

If  No.  I  be  accepted,  shadad  would  be  a  synonym  of  raqa*  (yp) 
from  which  we  get  the  raqfa,  i.  e.,  something  which  is  or  is  made 
dense,  tight, — hence  our  word  firmament !  The  at  at  the  end  rep- 
resents the  old  dual  ending.  El  shaddai  would  mean  according  to 
this  explanation  :  the  god  (el)  of  the  two  (ai)  firmaments  or  raqfas. 
The  god  of  the  two  firmaments,  i.  e.,  of  heaven  and  of  earth,  is 
EN-LIL  or  Bel.  Abraham  would  thus  become  a  worshipper  of 
Bel,  the  father  of  the  moon-god  Sin. 

The  second  etymology,  however,  seems  to  be  much  better  and 
-was  given  already  by  Delitzsch  ^  who,  however,  translates  El  shad- 
dai on  the  basis  of  the  Assyrian  ilu  shadu'a  by  **god  is  my  moun- 
tain." This  translation  I  do  not  think  can  be  maintained.  The 
ai  at  the  end  of  Shaddai  must  be  taken  again  for  the  old  dual  end- 
ing, which  occurs,  e.  g.,  in  Shalmaneser  II.:  **the  camels  sha  sAu- 
na-ai  tsi-ri-shi-na,  i.  e.,  whose  back  is  double.^'  The  double  ^stands 
for  if/,  i.  e.,  the  /  assimilated  itself  to  the  //.'     El  Shaddai  would 

*  7%r  Hebrexv  Language^  p.  48. 

3  For  such  a  retrogressive  assimilation  of  they  comp.  among  others  bonja  ^ 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  59 

thus  become  **the  god  of  the  two  mountains,"  i.  e.,  the  lugal-kur- 
kur  or  EN-LIL,  who  was  the  god  of  the  upper  and  the  lower 
mountain  or  heaven  and  earth.  El  Shaddai  then  is  as  much  as 
**god  of  heaven  and  earth,"  or  lugal-an-ki.  Thus  even  according 
to  this  etymology  the  El  Shaddai  of  the  patriarchs  is  the  EN-LIL 
of  the  Sumerians.  Above  we  have  seen  that  even  mrr  was  =  EN- 
LIL,  because  both  when  they  appear  are  accompanied  by  a  prime- 
minister  or  angel — ThV  by  his  r^Hb'O  and  EN-LIL  by  his  ur-sag  lig- 
ga  diDgir  xin-Gir-su, — i.  e.,  they  appear  always  under  thunder  and 
lightning  and  surrounded  by  clouds.  The  statement  of  P,  there- 
fore, that  r.l.T  appeared  unto  the  patriarchs  only  under  another 
NAME,^  viz..  El  Shaddai,  remaining  however  the  same  god  as 
before,  is  thus  shown  to  be  fully  justified.  El  Shaddai  is*  thus 
proved  to  be  an  Assyrian  name  which  translates  simplj^  the  Sume- 
rian  **lugal-kur-kur"  or  **  lugal-an-ki " !  Abraham  coming  from 
Ur  where  the  Sumerian  pantheon  was  fully  developed  and  known 
becomes  thus  a  worshipper  of  Bel  or  EN-LIL  the  lugal-kur-kur ! 

The  title  lugal-kur-kur  however  is  translated  in  the  later  Semitic 
Babylonian  inscriptions  always  by  bel  matdti,^  "lord  of  the  lands." 
If  this  transcription  and  translation  be  correct,  then  the  idea  ex- 
pressed here  would  be  that  Bel  as  \\i^  firmament  embraces  all  the 
"lands"  on  the  terrestrial  as  well  as  on  the  heavenly  irpT — for  the 
"lands"  are  situated  in  the  p'^pn. 

2.  The  dominion  of  Bel  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  char-sag 
kalam-ma  or  shad  ffiat&ti  2S  "the  mountain  of  the  lands,"  and  Bel 
himself  is  called  KUR-GAL^  or  shadu  rabu,  i.  e.,  "  the  great  moun- 

bunnu  =  bunu :  zimju  =  zimmu  =  zimu.  Such  a  word  as  shaddfi,  given  by  Del. 
H.  W,  B.  p.  642  does  not  exist.  The  writing  SHAD-di-e,  etc.,  ought  to  be  tran- 
scribed by  shadft  '*'-*,  i.  e.,  shadii  flus  tzvo  phonetic  complements. 

^  Whether  ^^T  was  a  name  taken  from  the  Kenites  or  not,  would  not  affect 
our  argument.  I  myself  would  see  in  mn*'  simply  another  name  for  "rock,**  i.  e., 
mn'*="he  who  is,  was,  and  will  be,"  the  "rock"  that  will  not  pass  away  nor 
change.  Comp.  here  the  proper  name  •'itj^'^')!*  "my  rock  is  Shaddai,"  the  KUR- 
GAL  (the  great  rock)  and  the  charsag  kalam-ma  (the  mountain  of  the  lands)  of 
the  Sumerians.  and  see  below. 

«See  e.  g.  Shalmaneser  II.  Obelisk,  1.  3:  ""b^l  KUR-KUR.  Or  should  we 
transcribe  here  also  ' '  shadai  "  ? 

'  See  lensen,  K.  B.  IIP.  p.  x6.  note  3.  and  E.  B.  H.  p.  65,  note  x. 


6o  THE  CREATION- STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

tain."  Bel  is  the  god  of  the  r*p"i,  which  :?^'p'^  is,  as  we  saw,  a  n'rc/g 
or  a  mountain.  In  this  mountain  or  circle  as  a  whole  the  **lands  of 
heaven  and  earth  "  are  situated.  Bel  becomes  thus  not  only  "  the 
great  mountain"  or  *' circle,"  the  r^p-i,  but  also  the  "mountain  of 
the  lands." 

3.  Later  inscriptions  speak  of  a  so-called  **  mountain  of  the 
rise  of  the  sun"  and  of  a  ** mountain  of  the  setting  of  the  sun," 
which  mountains  lie  in  the  East  and  West  respectivel}-.  The  earth 
being  considered  as  the  lo-iver  half  of  the  great  circle  called  T'T^  is, 
of  course,  at  its  extremities,  i.  e.,  in  the  East  and  West  higher  than 
on  any  other  part.  The  earth  seems  to  be  alwaj^s  higher  at  the 
horizon  than  where  we  stand. 

4.  The  earth  as  world  edifice  in  the  form  of  a  circle  or  better 
globe'  explains  the  whole  sj-stem  of  the  Sumerian  reckoning,  ac- 
cording to  which  the  circle  was  divided  into  360  degrees,  the  year 
into  360  days,  etc.,  etc. 

5.  It  removes  all  the  difficulties  which  Winckler  still  finds  in 
his  conception  of  the  Babylonian  cosmology.* 

Having  traced  the  genealogy  of  the  gods  and  inquired  into 
their  specific  meaning,  we  are  now  able  to  establish  the  pedigree 
tabulated  on  the  opposite  page. 

Of  <J'°8'fNin-ib  the  pa-te-si-gal  <i''^g«^En-lil-lal-ge,3  Nergal*  or  also 
known  under  the  name  '^'^^''^Shit-lam-ta-ud-du-a,*  and  Nusku  the 
lugh-magh  <^»°B"En-lil-lal«  we  know  too  little  to  be  able  to  classify 
them,  if  we  want  to  do  it  according  to  the  Old  Babylonian  inscrip- 
tions.    Nabu  does  not  occur  at  all.' 


*  Consisting  of  two  halves  or  plates — the  upper  being  pot  or  resting  upon  the 
lower. 

2  See  Winckler,  "Himmels-  und  Weltenbild  derBabylonier,"  Der  alte  Orient, 
III.  (1901)  pp.  5^5. 
«E.  B.  H.  p.  258,,. 

*  Written  «!'"«*' GIR-UNUG-GAL,  for  this  reading,  and  not :  Nir-unug-gal,  see 
Thureau-Dangin,  Z.  A.  XV.  p.  47,  and  note  2.  For  references  see  E.  B.  H.  p. 
226,. 

*E.  B.  H.  133,0.  224,  227,.  'E.  B.  H.  p.  223,  note  3. 

'  The  inscription  of  Ardi-Na-bi-um  belongs  to  a  later  (Canaanitish  or  Arameean) 
period,  as  the  name  la-ln-un-a-sar  shows.     E.  B.  H.  p.  229. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 


6i 


If  we  translate  this  genealogy  and  compare  it  with  that  of 
Gen.  i.  we  would  get  the  following  result : 

In  the  beginning  there  was  a  chaos  which  was  thought  to  be  a 
male  2mA  female y  perhaps  in  one  person.  The  Biblical  name  for  this 
chaos  was  tohu-vabohu,  but  as  male  and  female  it  was  called  either 
''waters"  and  «*Tehom,'*  or  ''Spirit  of  Elohim  "  and  "darkness," 


GUR 

EN-GUR_NIN-GUR 

=  (apsQ)      (=tiamat) 


AN  {=^Anu) 
EN-AN_*NIN-AN 

An-num_^n-n«t 

I 

LIL(=5?/) 
EN-LIL_NIN-LIL 
Lu^al-kur-kur  Nin-char-sag 

Lugal-dingir-e-ne    Ba-ul 
Nin-ta 

Sal  (Nin}-in-si-na 
Ga-tum-dug 
Nin-an-da-gal-ki 
Innanna 


KI  {^Eay 
EN-KI_NIN-KI 
Nun        Dam-gal-nun-na 


ZU  {=5/«)  x=.  (=Ramman)  jr=  [x=] 

EN-ZU_NIN-ZU    Nin-Gir-su_        [Ba-u]    NinS^    f  Nin-dar-a 


Uru-{ki)     Nin-gal   Iin-gig-ghu-(bar-bar) 
I  Im 


UD  {=Shamash)  x={=rshiar) 
Innanna 


iNin-dub 
Lugal-Erimki 

I  Ud-mk-Nin&-lc>-shurit-ta  J 


Nidaba 


Dumn-zi-za-ab 
Duma-zi 


Nin-Mar-ki 


(i)  Za-za-ni,   (2)  Im-pa-ud-du,  (3)  Ur-kalam-ta-ud-du-a,  (4)  Ghe(GAN}-gir-(nan-iia) 

(2)  =Dun-pa-ud-du?,  (3)  Gim-nun-ta-ud-du-a,     (4)  Nin-sar, 

(4)  Nin-gir. 
(4)Gkl-aIim. 
(5)  Gbe(GAN)-shag-ga,  (6)  Ka-dr-mu,  (7)  Za-ar-mu. 

Dun-sbag-ga 


In  the  Babylonian  account  the  names  apsu  and  tiamat  are  used, 
while  in  the  original  Sumerian  the  chaos  was  simply  called  GUR 
which  at  one  time  or  another  was  differentiated  and  became  *'Mr. 


*  Other  names  for  Ba-u  to  be  found  in  Old  Babylonian  inscriptions  are  :  Da-ma, 
Dun,  Gu-Ia,  Ma-ma,  Nin-din-dug  (probably  to  be  read,  however,  Innanna-edin.) 
Za-ma-ma.     See  £.  B.  H.  Index. 


62  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  1. 

Gur''  and  '*Mrs.  Gur,"  i.  e.,  EN-GUR  or  NIN-GUR.  From  these 
first  parents  everything  in  heaven  and  upon  earth  took  its  origin. 
EN-GUR  and  NIN-GUR  had  two  sons:  AN  and  KI,  i.  e.,  they 
begot  the  *•  heavenly  ocean"  and  the  ** terrestrial  ocean."  In  the 
Babylonian-Semitic  account  the  two  sons  were  called  AN-SAR  and 
KI-SAR,  who  again  probably  correspond  to  the  Lachmu  and  La- 
chamu.  Genesis  i.,  on  the  other  hand,  calls  them  ''waters  that  are 
above  the  firmament"  and  "waters  that  are  below  the  firmament." 
According  to  all  three  accounts,  these  waters  take  their  origin  from 
Tehom,^  i.  e.,  the  descent  is  reckoned  through  the  mother. 

AN,  the  *♦  heavenly  ocean,"  has  a  son  called  LIL,  i.  e.,  the 
ypl  or  firmament.  The  Sumerians  reckoned  to  this  firmament 
also  the  "earth,"  for  "heaven  and  earth,"  which  serv^ed  as  barriers 
for  the  heavenly  and  terrestrial  ocean,  are  the  dominion  of  the 
"king  of  heaven  and  earth",  i.  e,  of  EN-LIL. 

Here  then  we  should  have  a  marked  difference  between  the  Biblical  creation 
story  and  the  Sumerian  theogony.  The  difference,  however,  is  only  "a  seeming 
one : "  in  reality  it  does  not  exist. 

If  we  compare  the  Sumerian  theogony  as  given  above  on  p.  6i  with  the  gene- 
alogy of  Genesis  i.  on  p.  9  we  will  find  that  EN-LIL  corresponds  to  the  Biblical 
"heaven,"  "earth,"  and  "ocean  or  waters,"  of  the  creation  of  which  wc  read  in 
verses  6-10.  On  account  of  the  importance  of  this  difference  it  would  seem  neces- 
sary to  examine  verses  6-10  more  closely. 

Wellhausen '  thinks  that  in  Gen.  i.  the  creation  of  the  world  is  recorded  as 
having  taken  place,  not  in  six,  but  in  seven  days.  This  he  bases  upon  the  fact 
that  the  "formula  of  approval ":  2*. w"* J  C*r«Ti<.  K*21 '  is  repeated  seven  times, 
viz.,  in  verses  4,  10,  12,  18.  21,  25,  31.  According  to  him  the  single  works  fall 
upon  the  following  days : 

1.  The  division  of  the  darkness  by  the  creation  of  the  light  (v.  3-5). 

2.  The  division  of  the  waters  (v.  6-xo). 

3.  The  creation  of  the  plants  (v,  11-13). 

4.  The  stars  (v.  14-19). 

5.  The  fishes  and  birds  (v.  20-23). 

6.  The  animals  and  beasts  (v.  24-25). 
•  7.  Man  (v.  26-31). 

*  See  above,  pp.  35,  9. 

2  Die  Composition  des  Hexateuchs,  p.  x88  £f. 

'  "And  God  saw  that  it  was  good." 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  63* 

We  see,  then,  that  Wellhausen  finds  in  verses  6-10  only  onb  work  :  the  division 
of  the  tvaUrs! 

This  scheme  of  seven  days  is  rejected  by  Budde  *  for  the  following  reasons : 

1.  A  week  of  seven  working-days  without  a  sabbath  is  impossible  for  the  time 
to  which  P  belongs. 

2.  The  verses  6-10  do  not  speak  of  the  division  of  the  waters  only  but  of  the 
creation  of  heaven  on  one  hand  and  that  of  the  earth  and  the  ocean  on  the  other. 
And  on  account  of  the  important  role  which  the  division  of  the  tiimat  plays  in  the 
Babylonian  cosmogony,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  creation  of  heaven  was 
considered  by  P  to  be  one  day's  work  by  itself. 

Budde's  objection  sub.  No.  i  must  be  maintained.  Although  the  system  of 
seven  days  is  not  original,  yet  it  was  introduced  by  P  with  the  intention^  to  de- 
scribe the  creation  of  the  world  as  having  taken  place  in  six  days,  while  the  creator 
rested'  on  the  seventh  day.  But  when  Budde  maintains  that  in  verses  6-10  not 
the  division  of  waters  only  but  two  separate  tasks  are  recorded,  he  is  mistaken. 
Verses  6-8  tell  us  that  Elohim  divided  the  primeval  waters  by  putting  a  T'^pl  be- 
tween them.  This  y*pi  he  calls  "heaven."  Verses  9,  10  Kterally  translated  read ; 
"And  Elohim  said  :  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  gather  themselves  unto  one 
place  so  that  the  dry  land  is  made  to  api)ear,*  and  it  was  so.  And  Elohim  called 
the  dry  land  earth  and  the  gathering-place  of  the  waters  he  called  ocean.  And 
Elohim  saw  that  it  was  good." 

The  waters  shall  gather  themselves  together  unto  one  f lace !  What  place? 
This  expression  presupposes  that  the  earth  was  already  in  existence  (!),  or  else 
the  waters  could  not  gather  themselves  together  unto  one  flace  or  "Ari*"  !  Hence 
we  have  to  put  gd  before  ga  and  read  :  ' '  Let  the  waters  make  the  dry  ground  to  ap- 
pear." But  if  the  waters  obeyed  the  command,  then  it  follows  if  so  facto  that  the 
waters  had  to  recede,  had  to  gather  themselves  together  unto  one  place,— one  con- 
ditions the  other,  and  thus  ga  becomes  superfluous.  From  this  it  also  follows  that 
the  creation  of  "the  ocean  "  C2*>I\  is  not  a  task  by  itself,  but  merely  the  result 
of  the  "appearing  of  the  earth."  Hence  even  in  verses  6-10  we  read  only  of  the 
creation  of  "heaven  and  earth,"  i.  e.,  of  the  T^p"!  as  a  whole,  the  LIL.  Thus 
Gen.  i.  6-10  agrees  exactly  with  the  Sumerian  theogony.  Wellhausen  therefore  is 
correct  in  connecting  verses  6-10  and  seeing  in  them  "  the  division  of  the  waters" 
only — which  division  was  made  possible  by  the  creation  of  the  T^p'T — i.  e.,  by  EN- 
LIL'S  or  Bel's  taking  his  place  between  Ann  and  Ea. 

The  division  of  the  primeval  waters  or  Tidmat  was  the  first  act  of  Mardnk ; 
the'division  of  the  waters  is  also  ^^  first  act  of  Elohim,  tor  we  have  seen  above 

*  Urgeschichte,  pp.  489-491. 

'  See  above  pp.  3  ff.,  and  below  p.  64. 

'  That  P  did  not  succeed  in  making  this  very  clear,  we  saw  above,  p.  4. 

*Read  n^;pCfl. 


64  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

that  the  creation  of  the  "  light"  was  simply  introduced  in  order  to  help  P  in  fabri- 
cating his  days. 

Marduk-Elohim  then  accomplished  the  following  tasks:  (i)  the  division  of  the 
waters,  or  the  creation  of  the  r"*"^  or  "heaven  and  earth  "  ;  (2)  the  creation  of  the 
plants  ;  (3)  of  the  stars  ;  (4)  of  the  fishes  and  birds  ;  (5)  of  animals  and  beasts  ;  (6) 
of  man.     On  the  seventh  day  Elohira  rested. 

But  there  is  still  another  difference  and  diflBculty.  According  to  the  Sumerian 
theogony,  EN-LIL,  the  i'*p"l  or  "  heaven  and  earth,"  is  the  son  of  Anu,  i.  e.,  "  the 
heavenly  ocean,"  while  according  to  the  Biblical  text,  as  it  stands  now,  the  earth 
or  dry  ground  is  bom  by  the  terrestrial  ocean,  or  "  the  waters  under  the  heavens," 
i.e.,  by  EN-KI. 

P,  no  doubt,  wanted  to  elucidate  here  more  fully  the  Sumerian  theogony.  He 
knew  that  LILwas"the  heaven  and  earth"  or  T^pT  as  a  whole — thus  bom  by 
Anu — but  he  also  knew  that  the  verdure  (Ta'mmuz),  grain  (Nidaba),  etc.,  were  not 
born  by  EN-LIL — as  we  should  expect — but  by  KI,  the  terrestrial  ocean.  He 
knew  further  that  the  Sumerian  "ki  "  means  "earth."  Thus  in  order  to  get  over 
the  difficulty  in  the  Sumerian  theogony  where  EN-LIL  is  the  god  of  "heaven  and 
EARTH,"  and  yet  where  "the  produce  of  the  earth"  is  not  born  by  EN-LIL  but  by 
EN-KI,  the  god  of  the  terrestrial  ocean,  P  divided  the  T^pi  as  a  whole  into  two 
halves, — made  the  upper  r*pl  be  born  by  the  heavenly  and  the  lower  by  the  ter- 
restrial ocean.     See  also  what  has  been  said  on  p.  37. 

It  may  not  be  impossible,  however,  that  LIL  was  thought  to 
be  a  son  of  both  :  ^  of  AN  and  KI, — for  both  oceans  were  thought  to 
be  joined  together  beyond  the  firmament  or  :7*pi, — this  being  simply 
the  natural  observation  that  the  heaven  rests  upon  the  earth,  and 
mutatis  mutandis :  the  heavenly  ocean  upon  the  terrestrial.' 

The  god  LIL,  by  virtue  of  his  being  the  r^p-)  or  ** heaven"  and 
"earth,"  became  the  **/at/ier**  and  the  *'king  of  the  gods  of  heaven 
and  earth," — not  only  of  the  gods,  however,  but  also  of  all  other 

'  This  probably  explains  why  Marduk,  who  was,  as  we  have  seen,  identified 
with  EN-LIL  or  Bel,  is  called  the  aplu  r^shtfi  sha  Ea,  II.  R.  64d,  comp.  with  17c. 
d.  and  in  Damascius  :  rov  6t  'Aov  (i.  e.,  Ea)  koi  ^avicrjq  (i.  e.,  Damkina)  viof  6  Bypjoq 
(i.  e.,  acDording  to  later  times  the  Bel  nar'  k^oxf/v  :  Marduk).  See  also  Carus.  Thr 
Monist,  April,  1901,  p.  406.  That  one  son  should  have  two  fathers  is  not  strange, 
it  merely  would  presuppose  polyandry  with  descent  reckoned  through  the  father. 
For  a  classical  example  see  here  the  Minean  inscription  Hal.  504  =  Hommel,  Slid' 
arabische  Chrestomathie,  p.  94.     Comp.  also  above,  pp.  33,,  and  21 1 

3  Remarkable  also  is  that  Ba-u  together  with  LIL,  her  husband,  are  said  to  be 
"the  firstborn"  of  AN, — surely  an  evident  trace  that  the  differentiation  of  the 
sexes  was  comparatively  late.  If  LIL  was  the  firstborn,  then  also  his  wife  had  to 
be  the  firstborn  :  both  are  thus  husband  and  wife,  and  brother  and  sister. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  ^  65 

creatures,  as  may  be  still  seen  from  one  of  the  attributes  of  his 
wife:  Sal  (Nin)-in-si-na  who  is  called:  ''the  mother  of  the  world, 
the  one  who  created  the  creatures  of  the  world.  "^  And  as  the  attri- 
butes of  the  wife  belong  also  to  the  husband,  hence  god  LIL  was, 
according  to  Sumerian  conception,  the  creator  or  father  of  the  gods 
and  of  the  creatures  of  the  world.  The  gods  who  are  begotten  by 
LIL  are  ZU  or  Sin,  the  moon-god,  Ramman  or  Nin-Gir-su,  "the 
thunderer"  or  simply  ** cloud,"  who  again  is  the  *am  of  UD  or 
Shamash,  the  sun-god,  and  Innanna  or  Ishtar,  the  morning  or 
evening  star.  By  Ba-u  the  wife  of  Ramman  again  are  born  the 
seven  winds.  Also  according  to  Gen.  i.  **the  two  great  lights  and 
the  stars"  belong  to  the  y^p-).*  We  now  understand  why  P  is  so 
awfully  afraid  of  naming  these  two  great  lights  by  name.  He  knew 
that  they  were  the  sun  and  the  moon.  He  did  not  want  to  mention 
their  names, — for  if  he  did  then  he  would  have  had  to  use  for 
*'sun"  the  Hebrew  ^i^  (Shemesh),  which  apparently  was  too 
closely  related  to  the  Semitic-Babylonian  Shamash  and  might  have 
betrayed  a  heathenish  origin  of  his  (P's)  whole  cosmogony.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  Ishtar  or  nntfr  !  Shamash  was  at  the  time  of 
P  one  of  ih^  principal  gods, — and  whatever  smelled  of  heathenism 
was  blotted  out  by  P  ! 

A  strange  difference  however  is  to  be  found  here  between  the  Biblical  account 
of  the. creation  and  the  Sumerian  theogony.  According  to  the  latter  Sin  or  EN-ZU, 
the  moon-god,  is  the  firstborn  of  EN-LI  L,  and  hence  precedes  Shamash  or  UD  the 
sun-god.  In  Gen.  i.  16  on  the  other  hand  Shamash  is  called  "the g^recUer  light,"' 
while  Sin  is  named  "  the  lesser  light,"*  thus  the  former  apparently  precedes  the 
latter. 

What  is  the  reason  for  this  ? 

Winckler  ^  confesses  :  "  Das  babylonische  Pantheon  stellt  nicht  den  Sonnen- 
gott,  sondern  den  Mondgott  an  the  Spitze — tvarum,  ist  noch  unklar."  The  reason 
is  this  :  As  the  chaos  preceded  the  cosmos,  as  the  darkness  the  light,  thus  the  night 
preceded  the  day,  and  Sin*  being  "he  who  governs  the  night,"  must  necessarily 

' » E.  B.  H.  p.  202.  note  I.  i.  ^q^^^  3j^pi2  Gen.  i.  14. 

»  bnri  IIK?:.!.        *  yc^T^  niKttn.        "^  •  •  H  immels-  und  Wcltenbild, "  etc. ,  p.  65. 

•  Sin  precedes  Shamash  also  in  the  old  Arabian  pantheon.  Our  investigation 
enables  us  to  identify  that  pantheon  with  the  second  triad  or  raht  of  the  Sumer- 
ians.  Wadd,  Sin,  'Amra,  Haubas— all  names  for  the  Sumerian  EN-ZU  or  Um-ki, 
the  moon-god,  have  been  correctly  identified.     The  same  is  true  of  Athtar  and 


66  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

precede  Shamash,  -who  governs  the  day.  This  is  also  the  reason  why  in  early 
times  the  "day  "  consisted  of  "  night  and  day  '* — accepted  even  by  P  :  "there  was 
evening  and  there  was  morning,  the  .  .  .  day."  This  latter,  no  doubt,  is  a  relic  of 
the  Sumerian  conception  of  the  day — for  among  the  Sumerians  Sin  was  ih^ father 


Shams — the  former  is  the  ''•"^''^Innanna,  the  morning  or  evening-star,  the  latter 
dingiruD,  the  sun — with  the  difference,  however,  that  Athtar  has  become  a  mascu- 
line and  Shams  a  feminine.  Even  in  later  Semitic  Babylonian  inscription  Ishtar 
as  "the  morning-star"  was,  as  was  pointed  out  above,  p.  39,  considered  to  be  a 
masculine  deity.  If  the  old  Arabian  pantheon  represents  the  gods  of  the  second 
triad  or  raht  of  the  Sumerians,  then  an-Karich,  Chaul,  Anbdj,  and  Almaqu-hfi 
must  be  Nin-Gir-su  or  Rammin.  Hommel,  Die  siidarabiscJien  AUertumer  des 
Wiener  Hof museums,  p.  28  flf. ,  identified  them  either  with  Nebo,  because  (i)  "An- 
b^j  "is  a  broken  plural  of  Nabiju,  which  stands  for  the  older  Nabi'u  ;  (2)  Chaul  = 
TtTt  "  Phoenix"  ("  der  ja  vom  Weihraucblande,  Hadhramot,  her  nach  Aegypten 
fliegt,  also  ein  richtiger  T^TC^  oder  Gotterbote  ist"),  or  with  the  "  Stemenheer"  = 
Alm4qu-hfl.  With  regard  to  an-Karich  he  is  in  doubt,  thinks  however,  that  this 
god  is  "  wohl  auch  "  =  Nebo. 

Above  we  have  seen  that  Nin-Gir-su  is  the  ur-sag  of  EN-LIL, — hence  a  T|X!'tt 
or  minister,  just  as  Chaul  =  yTs  is.  Chaul  is  here  the  minister  of  Sin,  because 
Sin  is  the  chief-god,  who  was  even  in  Assyrian  times  identified  with  B61  (see  above 
p.  50)  hence  might  also  have  an  ur-sag  !  But  it  is  not  necessary  at  all  to  identify 
Chaul  with  the  bird  Phoenix  (see  Job  xxix.  18  and  Herodotus  ii.  73) ;  the  significa- 
tion which  the  root  ?*n  gives  on  hand,  is  a  much  better  one.  y\T\  or  also  **n  is 
used  in  Jerem.  xxiii.  19;  xxx.  23  of  the  storm  and  has  the  signification  :  Tvirbelnd 
losbrechen  hernieder  au/  etzvas  {c.  ^i?).  See  Gesenius-Buhl  swft  roc^.  Even  in 
Assyrian  we  have  a  root  TH  with  the  signification  "beben,  erbeben,"  and  a  chilu 
or  Hochjlut,  see  Del.  H.  W.  B.  pp.  274,  275.  The  god  Chaul  would  become  thus 
the  "god  of  the  stormflood ! "  and  might  be  read  Chiwil. 

Almiqu-hfi — thus  read  by  Hommel — is  derived  from  the  root  p?2^  "to  de- 
stroy," "to  beat."  Rammin  as  the  god  of  lightning  destroys  the  wicked.  I 
would  like  to  see  in  this  word  a  surname  of  Rammin  and  read  " a/maqu-hti."  i.e., 
"his  (sc.  Sin's)  chief  destroyer  or  warrier  =  ur-sag  lig-ga.  To  this  explanation  fits 
also  an-Karich  from  the  root  Tilw,  Del.  H.  W.  B.  p.  352,  b:  "in  Not  bringen." 

Anbij  too  is  not  a  broken  plural  of  Nabiju  =  Nabi'u — why  should  there  be 
z  plural  for  the  name  of  a  god,  seeing  that  this  god  is  only  a  shajfim? — but  also  an 
elative  form  (like  almaqu-hu !)  from  the  root  H^I  and  has  to  be  TezA  =  anbaju. 
DDi  I  would  like  to  take  in  the  sense  of  KD2,  Del.  H.  W.  B.  p.  442,  b.  "  hervor- 
sfrudeln,  hervorquellen"  from  which  we  get  the  namba'a,  "Quell,  Wasser- 
quell,"  and  the  imbfl'u,  "vegetation,"  and  especially  nib'u  "  Stress,  Frtichtertrag^ 
u.  dergl."  Rammin  would  thus  become  as  the  "god  of  rain"  he  who  produces 
vegetation — hence  he  is  called  by  Shalmanesser  II.,  Obelisk,  1.  7:  [»'»Ramm]&n 
gish-ru  shu-tn-ru  b61  che-gal-li,  i.  e.,  the  strong  one,  the  powerful,  the  lord  of  the 
abundance  or  ricTies  (sc.  of  the  fields).  With  this  agrees  quite  wonderfully  also 
the  name  ur'***^*' Nin-Gir-su,  which  name  is  not  only  that  of  an  early  Babylonian 
patest{see  E.  B.  H.  p.  441  for  references),  but  which  also  is  translated  in  the  bilin- 
gual texts  by  ikkaru  or  farmer,  husbandman,  Landmann,  Ackerbauer,  Land- 
ivirt,  see  Del.  H.  W.  B.  p.  58  sub  voce.  Ur-^***^''Nin'Gtr-su  literally  translated 
would  mean  the  "dog  or  servant  of  Nin-Gir-sn."    Bnt  Nin-Gir-su  is  =  Rammin 


LofC. 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  67* 

of  Shamash.  The  precedence  of  Shamash  represents  thus  a  later  stage  :  it  shows 
P  lived  at  a  time  when  Shan>ash  had  been  put  before  Sin.  But  if  the  day  began 
with  the  evening  or  night,  then  the  year  must  have  begun  with  the  winter,  and 
the  beginning  of  the  year  could  not  have  been  the  21st  of  March  (the  ist  Nisan), 
but  must  have  been  the  21st  of  September  (the  1st  Tishri).  This  month  Tishri, 
which  signifies  "beginning,"  corresponds,  as  was  shown  in  E.  B.  H.  p.  295,  to  the 
month  Ezen  ^ingirBa-u,  which  was  still  at  the  time  of  Gudea  (about  3300  B.  C.) 
the  first  month  of  the  year}  According  to  another  nomenclature  Tishri  corre- 
sponds to  the  month  A-ki-it,  which  means  "New- Year's  festival."  Tishri  is  also 
=  the  Canaanitish  S^IHN  which  again  was  the  first  month, ^  and  Tishri  is  still  the 
New- Year's  month  of  the  Jews  of  to-day.  The  present  Jewish  New-Year's  month 
thus  goes  back  to  the  most  ancient  times  :  to  the  time  of  the  Sumerians. 

The  creation  of  NinGir-su  =  Rammin,  the  god  of  thunder,  lightnings,  rain, 
storm,  and  clouds  has  been  omitted  by  P  !  The  reason  is  apparent.  He  did  not 
fit  into  P's  formula.  It  was  impossible  to  say  :  And  Elohim  said  :  "Let  there  be 
thunderings,  lightnings,  storms,  etc.  .  .  .  and  there  were.  And  Elohim  saw  that 
they  -were good !"  "  Good"  lightnings,  storms,  etc.  cause  quite  a  "  good "  deal  of 
havoc.  Thus  not  wishing  to  imply  that  the  Creator  might  have  destroyed  some- 
thing of  what  he  created — P  left  out  the  creation  of  theistorm  and  lightning  alto- 
gether. 

The  terrestrial  ocean  according  to  the  Sumerian  cosmogony 
begets  the  fishes,  the  verdure,  grain,  etc. 

It  ought  to  be  noticed  here  that  NinS  or  the  fish-goddess  is  called  the  sister  of 
Nin-Gir-su,  hence  stands  with  him  on  the  same  level.  According  to  the  genealogy 
given  above,  we  would  expect,  however,  that  she  would  have  been  called  the  sister 
of  LIL.  This,  no  doubt,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  LIL  is  the  son,  or  was  considered 
to  be  the  son,  of  both  AN  and  KI,  thus  standing  between  the  latter  two  on  one  side 
and  ZU,  Rammdn,  and  Nina  on  the  other  side.     See  above,  p.  64. 

who  as  the  god  of  rain  is  also  the  god  of  fertility  !  And  what  is  more  natural  than 
than  that  the  farmer  should  be  called  "the  servant  or  dog  of  the  god  of  fertility"  ? 
This  latter  name  not  only  proves  that  our  identification  of  Nin-Gir-su  =  Rammin 
is  correct,  but  also  that  anbaju  may — nay,  must, — have  this  signification  here. 

With  this  then  is  proven  the  Babylonian  origin  of  the  old  Arabic  pantheon, 
which  was  accepted  at  a  time  when  Sin  had  become  identified  with  Bel  (above  p. 
50).  That  the  Babylonians  indeed  influenced  the  ancient  Arabians  is  proved  by 
the, fact  that  even  Semitic  Babylonian  zuords  are  found  in  old  Arabic  inscription, 
as  e.  g.  rd^  =  libittu,  'pb  =  labdnu  (this  latter  is  found  in  one  of  the  oldest  hadhra- 
motic  inscriptions  from  Obne),  ^rnr?3  =  mushk^nu,  p22»=sunqu,  see  Winckler, 
M.  V.  A.  G.,  1901,  4,  p.  70. 

» Gudea.  Statue  E.  V.  i,  ?  ;  G.  III.  5,  6:  ud  zag-mu  ezen  '""P'Ba-u  "on  the 
New  Year's  day,  the  festival  of  Ba-u." 

'  I  Kings  viii.  2.     E.  B.  H.  p.  298, 


68  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

Also  according  to  P  the  verdure,  fishes,  etc.,  etc.,  derive  their 
origin  from  "the  v/aters  which  are  below  the  firmament,"  i.  e. 
from  KI ! 

In  the  Sumerian  theogony  there  are  no  *^ angels",  hence  they 
are  also  not  to  be  found  in  the  account  of  P. 

Considering  these  striking  similarities  between  the  Biblical 
account  of  the  creation  story  according  to  P  and  that  of  the  Sume- 
rians, — there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  the  former  is  derived  from  the 
latter. 

We  would  have  to  distinguish,  then,  in  Genesis  i.  three  differ- 
ent sources : 

1.  The  P  source.  To  this  belongs  the  system  of  seven  days,  the 
formula  given  above  and  the  different  changes  that  were  necessary 
in  order  to  make  the  whole  agree  with  the  notions  of  P.  The  P 
source  again  was  based  upon 

2.  The  Semitic-Babylonian  Creation  Story.  This  latter  was  used 
only  in  so  far  as  it  agreed  with  the  conceptions — theological  and 
otherwise — of  P.  All  that  was  against  P's  conception  was  elimi- 
nated from  it.  While  ihus  ** criticising'*  the  Semitic-Babylonian 
creation  story,  P  quite  unconsciously  retained  so  much  of  it  that 
he  reproduced  or  came  very  near  to  the  original 

3.  Sumerian  Source,  which  source  represented  the  creation  not 
as  the  result  of  a  fglit,  but  as  a  natural  process  of  generation  and 
perpetuation. 

Traces  of  No.  2  are :  the  conception  of  the  original  chaos  as 
Tehom  or  darkness  unto  whom  is  opposed  **the  spirit  of  Elohim"; 
the  dividing  of  the  Tehom  into  the  waters  above  and  below  the  fir- 
mament, and  last  but  not  least,  the  i^k  or  light, — the  attribute  of 
Marduk.  To  No.  3  belongs  the  toledoth  or  genealogy  of  heaven 
and  earth,  for  the  writer  expressly  sa>s  himself  that  what  he  has 
given  in  chapter  one  is  a  yixm  c^rtfn  nnriTi,  a  generation  and  per- 
petuation of  heaven  and  earth.  In  this  sense  nVT'tn  toledoth  has  to 
be  understood,  and  thus  we  get  a  further  corroboration  of  our  state- 
ment that  Gen.  i.  is  not  a  *^creatio  ex  niliilo,'*  but  a  generation  and 
perpetuation,  a  development  out  of  the  primeval  chaos, — an  evolu' 
Hon, 


THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I.  60 

Thus  the  Biblical  creation-story  of  P.  is  proved  to  be  the  re- 
daction of  a  Sumerian  Theogony  and  Cosmogony, 

But  where  is  Marduk?  We  have  seen  already  above,  that 
Marduk  is  not  known  in  Babylonia  before  the  time  of  the  first  dy- 
nasty of  Babylon  or  about  2400  B.  C.  He  then  was  imported  by 
that  dynasty  which  was  of  Canaanitish  origin.  Marduk  therefore 
was  probably  a  Canaanitish  god.  He  was  a  god  of  light.  The 
Canaanites  seeing  that  there  were  in  the  Sumerian  pantheon  sev- 
eral gods  of  light  as  Sin,  Shamash,  Ramman,  Ishtar,  etc.,  made 
Marduk  to  be  an  ''attendant,''  an  AMAR  of  Shamash  or  UD — call- 
ing him  AMAR-UD  \  This  name  expressed  on  one  hand  as  nearly 
as  possible  the  ''nature''  of  the  god,  as  well  as  on  the  other  hand 
the  sound  of  their  own  "Marduk."  When  the  Canaanites  had  in 
course  of  time  subdued  Babylonia  and  had  made  Babylon  their 
capital  with  Marduk  as  the  patron,  Marduk  became  the  head  of  all 
gods,  '*the  king  and  father  of  the  gods  of  heaven  and  earth,"  yes, 
he  was  called  even  "^'"^^EN-LILy^  thus  he  not  only  became  identi- 
fied with  god  LIL,  but  all  attributes  belonging  to  EN-LIL  orig- 
inally, were  now  ascribed  to  Marduk.  EN-LIL  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  also  the  ''father  of  all  creatures  and  their  creator" — hence 
Marduk  became  the  creator  too,  and  he  being  at  the  same  time  the 
god  of  light,  it  happened  that  the  Creation  was  conceived  of  in 
later  times  to  be  2l  fight  between  Marduk  the  Creator  and  the  dark- 
ness or  Tehom.  Marduk,  the  god  of  light,  and  his  fight  with  Te- 
hom  or  Tiamat  becomes  thus  a  specific  Babylonian-Semitic-Cana- 
anitish  production,  hence  also  one  of  late  origin. 

P.  by  thus  criticising  and  eliminating  the  mythical  element  of 
this  fight  of  Marduk  and  Tehom,  becomes  thus  the  first  higher 
critic.  If  he  did  not  succeed  in  presenting  to  us  the  original  pure 
Sumerian  Theogony  and  Cosmogony,  this  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
he  criticised  with  a  purpose — criticised  the  Babylonian  Semitic  ac- 
count to  adopt  it  to  his  own  theory  of  the  Creation  in  seven  days  in 
order  to  establish  for  his  Sabbath — and  thus  for  all  his  laws  and 
ordinances  connected  with  the  Sabbath — the  greatest  possible  age. 

>  See  above,  p.  51. 


70  THE  CREATION-STORY  OF  GENESIS  I. 

But  let  US  be  thankful  to  this  first  of  all  higher  critics :  he  has 
made  it  possible  for  us  to  follow  up  his  account  and  trace  it  to  its 
original  source.  Thus  we  have  another  striking  example  of  P.'s 
late  age.  He  lived  in  Babylonia,  was  therefore  able  to  acquaint 
himself  with  Babylonian  ideas  and  gave  us  an  account  of  the  Crea- 
tion which  together  with  his  **io  antediluvian  fathers"  may  be 
traced  to  the  very  oldest  sources  at  our  disposal :  to  the  Sumerian 
Cosmogony  and  Theogony. 


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The  Gospel  of  Buddha 

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Cloth,  Si.oo  (5s.).  3^  t1<.<U  ^1^11*1  I 

Accepted   as   authoritative  by  numerous  Buddhlsdc  sects,  and   translated  into 

ten  different  Asiatic  and  European  language*.  XTUi   DTlff   TTPrrfe    f 

"Admirably  fitted  to  be  a  handbook  for  the  single  reader  or  for  classes."—  M*^   TI<.Vj    *I^|I*1    I 

The  Critic,  New  York. 

Das  Evangelium  Buddhas  fl^  W.^  ^I^lffl  II 

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